The windows save dialog, open dialog, or search bar doesn't work.

[SirJosh3917]

Hello. When I click "Save as", or "Open" for any dialog that uses the built in windows "Save" or "Open" dialog, it doesn't open. The windows search bar (bottom-left corner click on windows and then start typing) doesn't work either. It won't display any results, or react to my typing. "Save as" does absolutely nothing for ANY program that uses it, and nor does open. What could be causing this?

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello and welcome Josh now first please follow this
Now before we can help we do need to know what is in your machine so please do this System Info - See Your System Specs
or either enter the specs of your system in your forum profile the specs will appear when we click on that little box bottom left of the post screen it is for me the preferable option as it is easy. As you may appreciate it is very hard when you don’t know what one is working with for example a diesel or petrol engine.
*(pretyped to save time)

Have you done any Windows scans yet if not please run these
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker
Disk Check < if necessary include the /f switch and if this does not make any improvement then just run this switch instead /r in the command line as per Option2
Run these in safe mode and the sfc often best run for two to three runs – you can leave out the /r switch in ckdsk if you feel it not necessary

and for good measure these
SUPERAntiSpyware | Remove Malware | Remove Spyware - AntiMalware, AntiSpyware, AntiAdware!
Malwarebytes | Malwarebytes Premium
AdwCleaner Download
ADW download from bleeping computer delete any rubbish found with the malware scans
(NB If you are running Kaspersky as the main AV then it might need disabling it when trying ADW because it does not like it at times)

When these are done then we can get down to sorting it out and it may be sorted by those first two scans.

 

[SirJosh3917]

Hello and welcome Josh now first please follow this
Now before we can help we do need to know what is in your machine so please do this System Info - See Your System Specs
or either enter the specs of your system in your forum profile the specs will appear when we click on that little box bottom left of the post screen it is for me the preferable option as it is easy. As you may appreciate it is very hard when you don’t know what one is working with for example a diesel or petrol engine.
*(pretyped to save time)

Have you done any Windows scans yet if not please run these
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker
Disk Check < if necessary include the /f switch and if this does not make any improvement then just run this switch instead /r in the command line as per Option2
Run these in safe mode and the sfc often best run for two to three runs – you can leave out the /r switch in ckdsk if you feel it not necessary

and for good measure these
SUPERAntiSpyware | Remove Malware | Remove Spyware - AntiMalware, AntiSpyware, AntiAdware!
Malwarebytes | Malwarebytes Premium
AdwCleaner Download
ADW download from bleeping computer delete any rubbish found with the malware scans
(NB If you are running Kaspersky as the main AV then it might need disabling it when trying ADW because it does not like it at times)

When these are done then we can get down to sorting it out and it may be sorted by those first two scans.

Hi, thanks ICIT2LOL.

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33GHz
MOBO: EVGA GeForce 9300 Series
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG

RAM: 8GB
HDD: (1) ST31000528AS ATA Device (2) WDC WD3200AAKS-61L9A0 ATA Device
SOUND: (1) NVIDIA High Definition Audio (2) High Definition Audio Device (3) USB Audio Device (4) NVIDIA High Definition Audio
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 7601 Multiprocessor Free Service Pack 1

SFC /SCANNOW doesn't work, after it completes, I reboot and - still not fixed.
I have proceeded to do chkdisk and will report results after it completes.
I will admit, my second harddrive ( WDC WD3200AAKS-61L9A0 ATA Device ) stopped working, it had some writing errors, I didn't hear any click of death, but I bought a new one ( an exact replica of it ) and replaced it, and since then I haven't gotten any errors from it ( Just to clarify, the OS is NOT installed on the disk I replaced. )

I will also report that I had to reinstall windows to get my wireless adapter working, so if I am forced to reinstall windows then so be it.

The first installation of windows however, this problem never happened.
I'll get back to you with the reports of CHKDSK soon, however.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Ok Josh now the chkdsk should fix most things but there are times when only a clean install will do that.

Now if you intend clean installing then I would advise you to first clean the drive you are going to use - I always do this to make sure the drive is completely clear of any old previous install bits and pieces.

You will of course need to use another machine running Windows to do that because Windows cannot wipe itself - obviously. You need to either install the drive into another running machine, use a USB dock or use a SATA to USB adaptor. Once that is set up you just follow this
Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command < a clean is fine the clean all takes a long time to run.

Now the specs are fine except the mobo is listed as the EVGA card and that is the GPU so can you look in the machine and find the motherboard make and model please because before we go clean installing I would like to see what drivers to link for it.

Out of interest what is the make/model wireless adaptor you mention and what is wrong with that??

 

[SirJosh3917]

Ok Josh now the chkdsk should fix most things but there are times when only a clean install will do that.

Now if you intend clean installing then I would advise you to first clean the drive you are going to use - I always do this to make sure the drive is completely clear of any old previous install bits and pieces.

You will of course need to use another machine running Windows to do that because Windows cannot wipe itself - obviously. You need to either install the drive into another running machine, use a USB dock or use a SATA to USB adaptor. Once that is set up you just follow this
Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command < a clean is fine the clean all takes a long time to run.

Now the specs are fine except the mobo is listed as the EVGA card and that is the GPU so can you look in the machine and find the motherboard make and model please because before we go clean installing I would like to see what drivers to link for it.

Out of interest what is the make/model wireless adaptor you mention and what is wrong with that??

I could always boot into something like FreeDOS on a usb or something instead of another windows

The mobo is an EVGA 113 YW E115, quite old, though it still has IDE support, and that means I can install FDDs, so I have one of those installed in there. ( FDD in 2017 yeay )

The wireless adapter is an Linksys AE3000, but im currently using an ethernet cable as that provides more reliable speeds.

If possible, I would really really like it if I didn't have to reinstall windows. I have a bunch of programs installed, mainly of which are IDEs for developing programs, and that'd take a while to get back up.

 

[RolandJS]

tweaking.com's Windows Repair (All in One), Safe Mode with Networking, re-associating system files, items 27 & 27 [putting Windows' defaults back into play] -- is one more thing to consider trying.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Ok mate try Rolands suggestion and maybe you can avoid the clean install.

 

[RolandJS]

Ok mate try Rolands suggestion and maybe you can avoid the clean install.

I forgot to add: after WR does its thing, Restart at least once if not twice, let Windows come to full desktop.