Here’s a weird one for you, Dave: I no longer am able to search from the Address Bar within IE. For example, if I try to search for ‘free beer’ (without quotes) a new page is displayed with ‘http:///?%20free%20beer’ in the Address Bar and ‘Invalid syntax error’ shown at the top. Do you know what has changed within IE to cause this?

Ah, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think the most likely explanation is that you have gained some spyware in your Internet travels that are mucking up your computer.

Do you run antispyware utilities like Ad-Aware? I certainly would.

You can also reset your autosearch capability (as it’s called) by mucking about in the Registry itself, if you’re sufficiently brave or foolhardy. Remember to save a copy before you make any changes, just in case, but if you dig around and find…