Unable to use Books Online search function

I am unable to use the search feature in Books Online. Every time I click the "Search" button, I get this error message:

Package "Visual Studio Common IDE Package" failed to load

Anyone have any ideas on what might be causing this error

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Unable to use Books Online search function

Rodrigo Vieira

Thanks. Unfortunately, the Visual Studio folks I need to contact are out of the office until Monday (10/31/2005).

I'm assuming you're able to access Books Online using the Index and/or table of contents. If that's not true, you may want to consider downloading the stand-alone version of BOL on another machine. You can download from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx FamilyId=ADC75E35-7245-4038-9B8A-B8FABAEC16DA&displaylang=en. You'd need to install the version of .NET Frameworks 2.0 that is listed in the System Requirements on that page.

I'll post next week when I have more information.

Regards,
Klemenp
I am running the September CTP - Standard Edition (Build No. 9.0.1314) on a Windows XP Professional SP2 machine.
moonguy
The values shown by RegEdit are

(default)   REG_SZ   Visual Studio Common IDE Package
Assembly   REG_SZ   Microsoft.VisualStudio.CommonIDE, Version=8.0.0.0,
                            Culture=Neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a
Class        REG_SZ   Microsoft.VisualStudio.CommonIDE.CommonIDEPackage
InProcServer32   REG_SZ   mscoree.dll

Sharon
CRNaik
I am having the same problem with RTM (Developer edition) code. I have tried
   a) uninstalling the entire build of SQL Server 2005
   b) your suggestion to remove BOL and reinstall it via control panel
   c) repair attempt 1

I am also running Windows XP Service Pack 2.

I have no problems on Windows 2003, even though I had a previous CTP (which I cleaned up with the build cleanup wizard before installing the RTM code.)

The XP machine is my main machine and may have traces of either Yukon Beta 2 or a failed attempt to install the BOL for the September CTP. I cleaned everything out of the registry and the file system that I could find before my most recent install of SQL Server 2005.

I can use the table of contents and the index but not the Search or Help Favorites features.

Sharon
Calhoun Solutions

Hmm, this is strange. I know that you have already gone through an uninstall/repair/install cycle and I am sorry for the trouble it has caused. Is it possible to uninstall Books Online again and send me the registry entries that are left behind under the following registry key

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MSDN\8.0

For speedier communication and resolution of this issue, you can contact me at sjain at microsoft.com.

--
Regards,
Saurabh

VS Core Dev Team.
SneshaA
I ran through all these steps, but I'm still getting the error message.
Anna Flynn
My registry does not contain a value CodeBase. I received an error message

Error: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value

The values in my registry for that package are
   Default
   Assembly
   Class
   InProcServer32

Sharon
LiuCong

Please the try the following.

Open a command prompt.

Run the following command and hit "y" when prompted.

reg delete HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MSDN\8.0\Packages\{6E87CFAD-6C05-4adf-9CD7-3B7943875B7C} /v CodeBase

Please note that this fix requires registry modification and one should be careful while performing these operations.

--
Regards,
Saurabh

VS Core Dev Team.
Piotr K.
Can you tell me what's the value assigned to each of these registry values under this key

--
Regards,
Saurabh

VS Core Dev Team.
James Cole
This usually means that something is missing from the Books Online installation. You could try to repair the installation by uninstalling and reinstalling Books Online.
Here are the steps you need.

To uninstall Books Online.
1. From Control Panel | Add or Remove Programs, select Microsoft SQL Server 2005 CTP and click Change. Note: If you see a separate Books Online feature in the list, ignore it.
2. From Component Selection, select Workstation Components.
3. From Welcome..., click Next
4. From System Configuration Check, click Next.
5. From Change or Remove Instance, select Change Installed Components.
6. From Feature Selection, expand Documentation, Samples and Sample Databases
7. Click SQL Server Books Online and then select X Entire feature will be unavailable.
8. Click Next and then click through the remaining pages of the wizard by clicking Install, Next, and Finish.

To Reinstall Books Online.
1. Follow steps 1-6 above.
2. Click SQL Server Books Online and then select Entire feature will be installed on local hard drive.
3. Click Next and then click through the remaining pages of the wizard by clicking Install, Next, and Finish.

Hopefully this will resolve the problem.
Dan Amiga
Hi Ken,
I've been able to get a bit more information. The problem you're experiencing is likely caused by an uninstall process (SQL Server or VS) that didn't cleanup after itself properly. I'm going to list several potential solutions starting with the quick and easy ones.

Books Online Repair Attempt 1 (quick and easy but may not solve the problem given that your first attempt at uninstalling/reinstalling didn't work.)
1. From Add|Remove Programs, select Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Books Online, and click Change.
2. From Welcome, click Next.
3. From Program Maintenance, click Repair
4. From Ready to Repair, click Install and then click through the rest of the wizard.

If you happen to have the MSDN library installed, you should try to repair that as well through Add | Remove Programs.

Books Online Repair Attempt 2 (it starts to get ugly)
Uninstall all of SQL Server and reinstall the September CTP. Or, if you have MSDN access, install the RTM bits (the RTM bits would be preferable if you have access to them).

Books Online Repair Attempt 3 (time consuming and may not solve the problem).
There are some scripts/instructions we could provide that might cleanup whatever was not successfully removed during the uninstall. From what I understand, the steps involved are fairly detailed and time consuming and to be perfectly honest, the person that told me about them couldn't guarantee that it would work.

If you're interested in this option, let me know.

Books Online Repair Attempt 4 (just plain ugly)
Assuming you have SQL Server installed on a test machine and doing so would be a reasonable task on your part, you might consider starting with a clean machine. This would mean formatting the disk and reinstalling from the OS up. I suspect this may not be a reasonable alternative, but it would definitely solve the problem.

I'm sorry I don't have a better answer for you.

Regards,
raju44u
Here's a partial work-around for the search. In a query window in Management Studio, type the string you are searching for. Highlight it and press Shift+F1. Seems to only work for things that are SQL, though.

Sharon
dwee
Thanks for the information Sharon. I've sent this to the Visual Studio team. If they have any additional potential solutions, I'll pass them on.

Regards,
Tom Morgan

Okay. I'm checking with the Visual Studio team for further assistance. In the meantime, it would be helpful to know which CTP version you installed.

Thanks,
Unable to use Books Online search function

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