My search companion, the one with Rover, disappeared awhile back, and I have no idea how to retrieve it. I've googled it, but nobody else seems to have the same problem. It's not that my search doesn't work, but it's just boring looking. I know a lot of people don't like the dog, but I do, and I want it looking back like the XP version. Below is a picture of what it looks like now. Any help would be great!

If you like having an animated search companion, dump the default character, Rover, quick smart! His collection of tricks is pitiful. Try out Merlin instead. If you have Microsoft Office XP installed you'll have additional choices including my favourite, Layback Rocky.

If you're at a loose end, double-click the animated character and it will let you switch it off, choose a different character, or have it perform a trick. If the search character is not visible, you can activate it by clicking Change Preferences and then selecting With An Animated Screen Character.

see this link for more info
http://www.geekgirls.com/windowsxp_search.htm

So go to Start Button>Search> and change it

Yeah, but I don't have the option to click 'change preferences'. That link isn't available with the version I'm stuck with. In the picture I inserted in the above post, you can see what my search looks like. There's nowhere to click anything to change anything. So I have no idea how to get back to the search companion that lets you choose a character. Right now I can't choose anything.

You could try the Search Companion fix.zip
find it at this forum.

http://icrontic.com/forum/showthread.php?p...62&posted=1


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...b;en-us;Q319949

I've tried that fix before, but that's not my problem. My search thing works perfectly, there's no error message, it's just very strange looking. Note the above picture. It's not blue like most XP things, and just looks different. It's not that it doesn't work...I just don't like the way it looks. And it doesn't have all the features of the XP search, either.

What OS do you have and what SP ?

I guess then you get the same problem doing this..

Troubleshooting
If the Search Companion dialog box is not displayed, press F3 to open it.
You can also open the Search Companion dialog box when you press F3 in Windows Explorer, My Computer, or Microsoft Internet Explorer.

did your search assistant get hijacked ?
http://xona.com/2004/07/18-2.html

do you even have a file called rover.acs on your PC ?
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt-2000-...-companion.html

It seems you are not alone with this problem.

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102-0.htm...ssageID=2366620

http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.ht...ssageID=1711490

Rover's back! Thanks so much for your help! It was the second link, http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.ht...ssageID=1711490, that helped and the part where I did this:

Go to Start, then Run and type the following:
regsvr32 /i "C:\Windows\Srchasst\srchui.dll"
regsvr32 /i "C:\Windows\system32\urlmon.dll"
regsvr32 "C:\Windows\system32\jscript.dll"

Thanks again for your help!

Cool..I will remember that one now to help others..thanks for letting us take a crack at it..it is hard to visualize just what might be missing..and wonder now if you have any idea on how it got broken in the first place ?

Had you recently cleaned off some nasty virus or a hijack recently ???

I can't really think of what happened. I'm trying to remember...it happened a few months ago, but I just never got around to messing with it until now. I did have my computer get infected with that parite virus about 3 months ago. I was able to clean it up using TrendMicro's SysClean, and that seems to be around the time the search thing messed up.
I also had my computer sent in for repair and they formatted it. A few weeks after I got it back, I remember noticing that I no longer had the SP2, and reinstalled it myself. I vaguely recall it having some glitches, but nothing ever seemed to be terribly messed up. That could have been it. I can't remember for sure, though.

Interesting...to add to that..I have a friend who had his motherboard replace and powersuppy on a Dell..and they were able to get his system working again without a reformat..but had to diddle with some things..and he also now only has they type of search window as yours...he did not really want the doggie..so I just cleaned up and repaired a few other things he was used to seeing.


I myself do like the rover too He brightens up my day.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1811