I open H&S with Windows+F1, then type in my search "registry" (no
quotes). The client area goes completely white and H&S becomes non-
responsive; I have to kill it with Task Manager. This is repeatable:
H&S comes up normally, but dies when I try to do a search.

I did some googling and found Kelly's Korner #235, but it says
"Restore H&S Service" and there's no explanatory text, just a
registry file. Before applying a registry patch, even from a known
site, I'd like to know that this is actually supposed to fix *this*
problem with H&S and not some other problem, and I'd fee better with
some explanation of what caused the problem so I don't do it agan.

This is XP Pro SP2. I've never run any kind of registry cleaner. And
I don't have Windows media because Acer doesn't provide them, not
even at extra charge.