Search not working in system preferences

The search field in system preferences has stopped working on mt G5 Dual.
No matter what I search, including simple terms like 'date' or 'network' - nothing gets highlighted.
Any ideas anyone?

Hi, Kenny.
This should sort it out:
1. Quit System Preferences if it is open.
2. Open your Home > Library > Caches folder.
3. Trash the following two files therein:
- com.apple.preferencepanes.cache
- com.apple.preferencepanes.searchindexcache
4. Empty the Trash.
5. Launch System Preferences and see if Spotlight search of System Preferences works as expected.
Note that some of the information above is from the "System Preferences" chapter of my book, Troubleshooting Mac® OS X, Tiger Edition.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

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Spotlight (still) not working in System Preferences

Hi there,
As soon as I enter a single letter in the search box of the System Preferences window, the entire System Preferences window dims, and no Preference Pane icon is highlighted.
I've tried:
1) Running Disk Utility and reparing disk -- no repairs required
2) Running Disk Utility and repairing permissions -- no repairs required
3) Booting into Single User Mode (Command-S at boot), and running AppleJack 1.4.3 and removing all caches and checking all plist files for corruption
4) Deleting the Spotlight index: sudo mdutil -E / and re-indexing
5) manually deleting just ~/Library/com.apple.preferencepanes.cache and
~/Library/com.apple.preferencepanes.searchindexcache
Except for the search field in the System Prefernences window not working, Spotlight seems fine.
Any other suggestions appreciated.
...b

Thank you Daniel,
I omitted posting that the Search box in my Systems Preferences Window used to work, so that I do know what to look for: as I type letters the preference panes whose description contains the (partial) word I am typing should be highlighted by an undimmed circle.
Unfortunately, in my case, the behavior I have is that regardless of what I type in the Search box in my Systems Prefernces Window, no icons are ever highlighted. Indeed, I can type the complete name of a preference pane, for example 'bluetooth', and while my entire Systems Preferences Window is dimmed, neither my Bluetooth preference pane icon nor any other preference pane icon is highlighted through the use of an undimmed circle about it.
This failure of the Search box in the Systems Preferences Window has been experienced by other people. For example in this forum, viz:
Reindexed my HD but no Spotlight preference in Preferences
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=876847
Unfortunately the solution posted in the above thread was to manually delete the ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.preferencepanes.cache and ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.preferencepanes.searchindexcache files. And as I posted I've tried not only manually deleting the above two files in terminal.app, but also deleting all of my cache files through the use AppleJack 1.4.3. Neither steps have returned the Search box in my Systems Preferences Window to working order.
Alas, I'm still looking for suggestions...

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<Email Edited By Host>

Hey there, sounds like you've done a lot of the groundwork already although it's not entirely clear what about the preference panes aren't working. There is further isolation that could be performed however if the issue is isolated to your user account as you mentioned then renaming the home folder library preferences, logging out and back in (preventing login items if any) and testing may give you the results you are looking for. If that works I would copy the files from the renamed Preferences folder *not replacing* existing files when prompted (of course if it doesn't work replace the existing Preferences folder with the original renamed Preferences entirely). The same type of troubleshooting also applies to the user library itself however please be careful about launching apps after renaming the ~/library or the contained prefs folder and before copying unaffected plists and/or supporting files back as unexpected results may follow (i.e. lost or missing data). Also if you are eligible for support (which you almost certainly are as you have very recently installed a new OS) I'm sure Applecare may help find a solution.

Some controls not working in System Preferences

Today I downloaded a beta application that was blocked from installation because it came from an unidentified developer (Mail Pilot Beta 3, fwiw)
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Hello, and welcome to the Discussions.
What are your selections in Mail Preferences/Accounts/Advanced for this Gmail account, if using IMAP, regarding keeping message for Offline use? The Mail search can only access the list of messages to search Subject, From, etc, but not the entire message unless copies of all messages are being kept on the computer. This would be true for any IMAP account, btw.
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Back up all data. Don't continue unless you're sure you can restore from a backup, even if you're unable to log in.
This procedure will unlock all your user files (not system files) and reset their ownership and access-control lists to the default. If you've set special values for those attributes on any of your files, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. Do so only after verifying that those settings didn't cause the problem. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it.
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{ sudo chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~ $TMPDIR.. ; sudo chown -R $UID:staff ~ $_ ; sudo chmod -R u+rwX ~ $_ ; chmod -R -N ~ $_ ; } 2> /dev/null
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
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☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The command will take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear, then quit Terminal.
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Take this step only if you have trouble with Step 1 or if it doesn't solve the problem.
Boot into Recovery. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select
Utilities ▹ Terminal
from the menu bar. A Terminal window will open.
In the Terminal window, type this:
res
Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:
resetpassword
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Select your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.
Select
 ▹ Restart
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In system preferences - languages and text - the formatting of numbers does not respond, In system preferences - languages and text - the formatting of numbers does not respond

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Hi there! Just reading that paragraph I hurt all over
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I use safari... I love it, but thanks for all your offers. If I even do need something, I will let you know. and PLEASE let me know if what I wrote above makes sense.... but it works
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A
You may have installed one or more of the common types of ad-injection malware. Follow the instructions on this Apple Support page to remove it. It's been reported that some variants of the "VSearch" malware block access to the page. If that happens, start in safe mode by holding down the shift key at the startup chime, then try again.
Back up all data before making any changes.
One of the steps in the article is to remove malicious Safari extensions. Do the equivalent in the Chrome and Firefox browsers, if you use either of those. If Safari crashes on launch, skip that step and come back to it after you've done everything else.
If you don't find any of the files or extensions listed, or if removing them doesn't stop the ad injection, ask for further instructions.
Make sure you don't repeat the mistake that led you to install the malware. It may have come from an Internet cesspit such as "Softonic" or "CNET Download." Never visit either of those sites again. You might also have downloaded it from an ad in a page on some other site. The ad would probably have included a large green button labeled "Download" or "Download Now" in white letters. The button is designed to confuse people who intend to download something else on the same page. If you ever download a file that isn't obviously what you expected, delete it immediately.
Malware is also found on websites that traffic in pirated content such as video. If you, or anyone else who uses the computer, visit such sites and follow prompts to install software, you can expect more of the same, and worse, to follow. Never install any software that you downloaded from a bittorrent, or that was downloaded by someone else from an unknown source.
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"Avast" is the worst of the whole wretched lot of commercial "security" products for the Mac. Not only does it fail to protect you from any real danger, it may send personal data (such as web browsing history and the contents of email messages) back to the developer without your knowledge, give false warnings, destabilize and slow down the computer, expose you to network attack, and corrupt the network settings and the permissions of files in your home folder. Removing it may not repair all the damage.
Some versions of the product also inject advertising into web pages. In short, apart from the fine print in the license agreement, Avast is indistinguishable from malware, and is arguably worse than any known malware now in circulation.
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8GB of available space
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iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
Xserve (Early 2009)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
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