I got this after installing some update, can’t say exactly which.
The problem symptom is that when you type anything in search bar it looks like that

To solve it.

Go to Run> type regedit.exe

Navigate to :HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurre ntVersionExplorerFolderTypes{EF87B4CB-F2CE-4785-8658-4CA6C63E38C6}TopViews

You will see a key named {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
Just rename it to anything else like {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}.Orig

After you rename the key , start Task manager and kill the explorer.exe process

Run the process again from file>New Task (Run..)

Type in bar explorer.exe

And Walla!

It works!

Microsoft published a hotfix that addresses the issue in Windows 7 and 2008R2

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977380

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