The filtering process could not be initialized. Verify that the file extension is a known type and is correct

Do you have pptx or any other files with broken links on any of your SharePoint web sites? If that is the case then SharePoint 2007 and Search 2008 will NOT crawl the file at all and it will throw the following error:

“The filtering process could not be initialized. Verify that the file extension is a known type and is correct”

To fix this issue you will need to install Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Packs. Do not worry if you are not using or installed SharePoint 2010 or any Office product 2010. This filter pack justs adds a bunch of dll files that will fix the problem. You only need to install the Microsoft 2010 Filter Packs on your INDEX server.

Link to Microsoft 2010 Filter Packs:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=5cd4dcd7-d3e6-4970-875e-aba93459fbee&displaylang=en