"Help" doesn't work right

[Ents]

On many dialogue boxes for Menu options in various
programs, there's a question mark on the right end of the
title bar (left of the Closing "x"), that I used to be
able to Click on and then point to items on the dialogue
box and get specific help. It doesn't work anymore.
(It's inoperative on all programs on my computer.) In
addition, on all non-Microsoft Office programs, most
regular "Help" menus don't work-- I get error messages
like, "Call to WinHelp failed" or "Failed to launch Help",
or just nothing happens (when I click on "Help" in a
program).

How to fix???

 

[Delwin Lee [MSFT]]

It sounds like the Windows Help engine is broken. You can start by trying to
use System File Checker to look for corrupt files (open a Command Prompt
window, and enter "sfc /?").

If that does not help, you can attempt a repair installation of Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341&Product=winxp