Vista - Advance search freezes

In Vista Home Premium a recent problem with windows 'Search' when started
from the list of program on right side of start configuration (in list above
recent items).

The window starts to open and then freezes (sometime in a transparent mode)
and there is nothing that can be operated in that window....it remains
frozen. The window must be closed using task manager.

It would seem this is a vista operating system error but there are no error
msgs nor other writeups about this type of occurrence. Any Ideas?

At the same time the outlook program doing almost the same at startup so
they may be related. (this has been reported in the outlook newsgroup).

Thanks for your thoughts,
Jim