Can't open files in search results from a mapped network drive on Windows 2012 R2 Standard Server with Windows 7 or Windows 8 clients. File icon is blank too.

I recently implemented a new Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard server running the Essentials Experience Role.   The mapped drives are applied to the client machines using Group Policy.   Typically the users go to any mapped drive in Windows Explorer on their PC, type in their search criteria in the search field in the upper right hand corner of the window and then get a list of all matching files on that drive - Word docs, Excel sheets, PDF's, etc.

But occasionally they were having a very strange issue where the search results appeared but they could not open any of the files when they double-clicked on the files.  No error message was given.  Also, they could not right-click on files either.  The other weird part is that the little icon next to the file name that usually shows the file extension icon (Word, Excel, PDF, etc.) was a blank icon.

I did a ton of online research but couldn't find any help for this issue.  I don't think I've completely solved it yet but I do have a way of getting the search results to start working again.  I found that if I go to the Windows 2012 R2 server, pull up the list of Services and restart the "Windows Search" service, that my search results will start functioning properly on the client PC's - they'll display the proper icon and they can be opened as expected.

So something is clearly wrong with my Windows Search service.  I'm still trying to figure out what causes it to fail but at least now I know how to fix the search results issue in the meantime.  

Please comment below if you've run into this issue and found any other fixes.

Add/Remove Programs Window Will Not Open

Edit : August 2011 - This post is nearly 6 years old and it's probably the most popular post I've ever made. It's the number one Google result for this error.  Still getting dozens of hits per day. Over 100 comments! I'm glad I could give something back to my fellow IT pros.  (PS - why not throw me a bone and click an ad on my site, like one of the big banners up top? I might earn a penny or two. hehe  Thanks!)
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Just ran into this crazy issue. One of my clients has a server running Windows 2000 Server. I needed to remove a program so of course I go to Control Panel and click on Add/Remove Programs. Nothing. It doesn't open. Try again. it still won't open. I then start noticing that each time I do this, it's spawning another instance of mshta.exe in my task manager. Strange. I've been troubleshooting for a few hours, trying various suggestions from around the net - reboot the server, register some files, apply some updates, put on my rally cap, etc.

But I've finally found the article that worked like a charm. It's a Microsoft KB article. Isn't it odd than you can search the KB and never find a helpful article but you'll find a website that links to the exact article that you WISH your KB search would have found???

Anyway, here is the link to the article.

What you need to do is just go to the command line and run these 3 commands to repair some registry entries.

regsvr32 mshtml.dll

regsvr32 shdocvw.dll -I

regsvr32 shell32.dll -I

This worked like a charm. My Add/Remove Program window opened right up.

Problem starting Server and Workstation services after installing Great Plains

Edit : August 2011 - This post is over 6 years old and it's the most popular post I've ever made. Still going strong! It's one of the top Google results for this type of error.   Still getting dozens of hits per day. Nearly 100 comments! I'm glad I could give something back to my fellow IT pros. I know I spend most of MY day researching errors on Google as well.   (PS - why not throw me a bone and click an ad on my site, like one of the banners up top? I might earn a penny or two. hehe  Thanks!!)
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I've stumbled across a rather odd issue the past few weeks. At first I just thought it was a typical Windows problem but when it started turning up on more than one machine, i figured there had to be a common thread.

Here is the problem. Your XP machine can't browse the network. You can get the internet just fine but can't connect to any servers. As you are troubleshooting the problem, you discover that several Windows services are not running - Server, Workstation, Computer Browser, Net Logon, among others. These services not running will definitely prevent you from browsing your network and connecting to other machines.

So you try to start Computer Browser manually - it tells you it can't start the service because it has a dependency on another service - which turns out to be Server and/or Workstation service.

So now you try to start Server or Workstation service and you get the same error message on both of them - "The system cannot find the file specified". It also registers an Event 7023 in the event log and says "The system cannot find the file specified." This was happening on my laptop for a few days and i wasn't having much luck finding a solution. In fact, i was getting ready to re-install Windows XP.

But then i ran into the exact same problem on a few workstations at a clients site that i was just working on. They were going thru an upgrade to Great Plains 8.0. So i decided to look a little bit on PartnerSource, which i hadn't checked before since i didn't think it was a GP related issue. I did find an article that talks about this problem. Here is the link for CustomerSource or ParterSource users.

The title is - Error 1068 "The specified file cannot be found" and the Workstation Service Does Not Start After Installing or Updating Great Plains (869971).

What seems to be happening is the installation, update or maybe uninstall of Great Plains is wiping out some registry entries that point to the location of the .dll files that run the Server and Workstation services. So you need to edit the registry and put these keys back in place.

Here are the steps from the TK article:

WARNING If a mistake is made on any of the instructions listed below, you may not be able to restart your system. If you are not familiar with the Registry, please seek assistance from Microsoft or your local Microsoft support representative. Microsoft can be reached at 1-800-426-9400.

1. IMPORTANT - Back up your system before making these changes. It is also important to create a new Emergency Repair Disk.

2. Verify that ServiceDll is stored in the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Services lanmanworkstation Parameters

3. You should see an entry with the Name of ServiceDll, Type REG_EXPAND_SZ and Data value of %systemroot%\system32\wkssvc.dll.

4. If this entry does not exist, you can add it with the following steps: a. Choose Edit-New-Expandable String Value. b. Name the new value ServiceDll (it is case sensitive). c. Double-click on this new value and specify Value data: %systemroot%\system32\wkssvc.dll. You could also copy the reg key from a working workstation.

5. After the entry is added to the registry you should be able to start the Workstation Service. NOTE - The uninstall/install of Great Plains does not remove this registry entry.

Ok, so those steps tell you how to get the location of the Workstation service dll back into the registry. You may find that the last key "Parameters" is missing all together. If that is the case, then right click on LanManWorkstation and select New->Key and name this Parameters. Then continue with step 3.

But in my experience, i was missing both Workstation and Server dlls and all of the machines that had the problem. So here are my additional notes on how to get the Server service running again.

The Registry location is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM - CurrentControlSet - Services - LanManServer - Parameters. Again, i was missing "Parameters" key all together so right-click on LanManServer and select New->Key and name it "Parameters". Then in this folder, create a new entry named ServiceDll, of type Reg_Expand_SZ (Expandable String Value) and a data value of %systemroot%\system32\srvsvc.dll. This is the dll for Server service. With this new entry in place, you should now be able to start the Service service as well.

With Server and Workstation service both running, you should now be able to start Computer Browser and any other services that were dependent on them. This should get you properly connected back to the network.

So i've seen this happen on 3-4 different machines now. The one thing in common would be that they previously had Great Plains Dynamics 6.0 un-installed and then Great Plains 8.0 installed. Must be something to do with the Great Plains 8.0 installation since i've un-installed Dynamics 6.0 a million times and have never seen this problem. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this situation with my other upcoming Great Plains upgrades. I hope this can help someone else and save you from re-installing Windows like I was about to do.

Update : I seem to be getting lots of hits from Google searches concerning this problem. If you've run into this situation and my article helped you, please click down below on the comments link and leave a note, or shoot me an email - TechRoundup@jasonhartman.net. If this looks like a wide spread issue, i can pass the info along to my contacts at Microsoft and see how we can get this taken care of or at least publish some better TechKnowledge articles about it. Thanks for your help!