Dreamweaver Find and Replace Crash / Failure

One of my favorite applications for web application development, whether ASP, ColdFusion, or HTML and JavaScript is Dreamweaver. I currently use version 8, and for the first time I experienced a real problem. Every time I tried using Search & Replace, the dialog box would not appear and eventually Dreamweaver crashed.

I tried updating to the latest version, 8.0.2, but that still didn't help. After no luck with some Google searching on "dreamweaver 8 find and replace crashes" I tried to do some Registry exploring and I figured out a solution. Upon initial exploration, I determined that Dreamweaver held various parameters specific to Search & Replace. After trying a few things, I found the ones that seem to be the culprits.

Enough said, here are the steps:

1. Close Dreamweaver
2. Launch Regedit (Start >> Run...; Regedit; OK)
3. Go to HK_users >> HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1606980848-1500820517-839522115-1689
   Most of this key is going to be unique to you. If you share the machine, you need to identify the key specific to you.
4. Continue navigating to >> Software >> Macromedia >> Dreamweaver 8 >> Find and Replace
5. Right-click on Find and Replace and Export. This will allow you to undo in case you have a bigger problem (i.e. lockup or crash)
6. Delete the following keys
   
   • FindReplaceXPos
   • FindReplaceXSize
   • FindReplaceYPos
   • FindReplaceYSize
   • Q_1_0
   • Q_1_1
   • Q_1_2
   • Q_1_3
7. Start Dreamweaver

That did the trick for me. Good luck!