I got this exception while developing on the SharePoint enterprise search. " Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Query.SearchServiceNotFoundException: The search request was unable to connect to the Search Service. at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Query.FullTextSqlQuery.Execute() " And i could not access the search settings in the shared service provider. I was getting the following message: " The search service is currently offline. Visit the Services on Server page in SharePoint Central Administration to verify whether the service is enabled. This might also be because an indexer move is in progress " The way to get start back again is to restart the Office Search service. This can be accessed via the "services.msc" in the command prompt. Thanks, Puneet.H