Always Opens Search in Windows Explorer

Fix Double Click Always Opens Search in Windows Explorer

If you mess around in the registry, or install some different software packages that add things to the right-click menu, you can end up with a problem where the default action on a folder is always “Search…”, even though you set it to something else.

There’s a quick and easy fix for this problem. Open up regedit.exe by using Start--> Run and then browse down to this registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell

• Double-click on the default value and set it to “none” without the quotes, as seen here:

This will restore the normal behavior.

• If you are also experiencing this problem when you try to click on a drive, you can run this command from the run box or command prompt:

                                              regsvr32 /i shell32.dll

This should restore the normal behavior.

Important: If you are getting a message that says “Windows cannot find ‘PET32.exe’”, then at some point you had a virus, or still have a virus. First, make sure that you run a virus scanner to get rid of the virus. Then run the regsvr32 command above, which should fix the problem.