SP1: Microsoft-supplied reg file hosed Help and Support

[TomYoung]

Hi:

I didn't like the result of SP1 removing the "Search" command on the
start menu, so I emailed Microsoft. They sent me two reg files -
"Search" and "RestoreHelpandSupport" - and told me that importing the
Search reg file would restore the Search command to the Start menu,
while the RestoreHelpandSupport reg file would undo the effects of the
Search reg file.

I ran the Search reg file and didn't like the results: Search was
there as a command but Help and Support wasn't, and if I typed "Help"
in the "Start Search" box on the Start menu "Help and Support" was the
first program listed but clicking on it brought up the Search program,
not the Help and Support program.

So, I ran the RestoreHelpandSupport reg file and now the Help and
Support command is back on the Start menu, but clicking on the command
does exactly nothing. Right clicking on the Help and Support command
on the Start menu only brings up the title "Help and Support."
Resting the mouse cursor on the Help and Support command brings up the
tool tips ("Find help topics, tutorials...") and the icon at the top
of the Start menu changes to the Question mark. But I can't get into
"Help and Support." It's as if most of the attributes of the Help and
Support command *were* restored, just not a pointer to the program
itself.

The folks at Microsoft haven't responded to requests for help, so...
anybody knows what's going on here, and how to fix this issue?

TIA

Tom Young

 

[Jon]

If you right-click the 2 .reg files, choose edit and paste their contents
into this thread, then someone may be able to advise further.

 

[TomYoung]

Good idea. Here's the contents of the two files:

Contents of Search reg file
------------------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}]
@="Search..."
"InfoTip"="@explorer.exe,-7000"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-
bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\DefaultIcon]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,
00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,
00,69,00,6d,00,\
61,00,67,00,65,00,72,00,65,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,
00,31,\
00,37,00,37,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-
bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\InProcServer32]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,
00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,
00,73,00,68,00,\
64,00,6f,00,63,00,76,00,77,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-
bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\Instance]
"CLSID"="{3f454f0e-42ae-4d7c-8ea3-328250d6e272}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-
bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\Instance\InitPropertyBag]
"CLSID"="{13709620-C279-11CE-A49E-444553540000}"
"command"="@shell32.dll,-12708"
"method"="ShellExecute"
"Param1"="search:"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\shellex
\ContextMenuHandlers\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\shellex
\MayChangeDefaultMenu]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-
bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer
\StartMenu\StartPanel\ShowHelp]
"Text"="Search"



Contents of RestoreHelpandSupport reg file
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}]
@="Help and Support"
"LocalizedString"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,
00,52,00,\
6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,65,00,78,00,70,00,6c,00,6f,
00,72,00,65,00,72,\
00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,2c,00,2d,00,37,00,30,00,32,00,31,00,00,00
"InfoTip"="@explorer.exe,-7001"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-
bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\DefaultIcon]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,
00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,
00,69,00,6d,00,\
61,00,67,00,65,00,72,00,65,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,
00,39,\
00,39,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-
bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\InProcServer32]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,
00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,
00,73,00,68,00,\
64,00,6f,00,63,00,76,00,77,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-
bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\Instance]
"CLSID"="{3f454f0e-42ae-4d7c-8ea3-328250d6e272}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-
bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\Instance\InitPropertyBag]
"CLSID"="{13709620-C279-11CE-A49E-444553540000}"
"command"="@shell32.dll,-12709"
"method"="Help"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-
bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\shellex]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\shellex
\ContextMenuHandlers]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\shellex
\ContextMenuHandlers\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\shellex
\MayChangeDefaultMenu]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-
bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer
\StartMenu\StartPanel\ShowHelp]
"Type"="checkbox"
"Text"="@shell32.dll,-30489"
"HKeyRoot"=dword:80000001
"RegPath"="Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\
\Advanced"
"ValueName"="Start_ShowHelp"
"CheckedValue"=dword:00000001
"UncheckedValue"=dword:00000000
"DefaultValue"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer
\StartMenu\StartPanel\ShowHelp\Policy]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer
\StartMenu\StartPanel\ShowHelp\Policy\NoSMHelp]


Anybody able to read these and see what's going on?

Tom Young

 

[Jon]

Yeah, that's a bit sloppy. The problem is that the first .reg file adds
registry settings that the restoration one doesn't remove.



Try adding the following line to the beginning of RestoreHelpandSupport.reg

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}]


ie after the initial "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00", so that it
instead starts


;---------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00


[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}]


;---------------------------------

 

[TomYoung]

Yeah, that's a bit sloppy. The problem is that the first .reg file adds
registry settings that the restoration one doesn't remove.

Try adding the following line to the beginning of RestoreHelpandSupport.reg

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}]

ie after the initial "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00", so that it
instead starts

;---------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}]

;---------------------------------

Thanks, I'll give it a try. But, just to make sure I've understanding
what you're saying: that line goes in *front* of everything that's
there, not as a substitution?

Tom Young

 

[Jon]

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}]

Thanks, I'll give it a try. But, just to make sure I've understanding
what you're saying: that line goes in *front* of everything that's
there, not as a substitution?

Yes, that's correct. In front of everything except for the line

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00


When done, it should start in exactly the same way as the first of those two
..reg files, Search.reg - You'll notice that that's how that .reg file
starts.

It's essentially to ensure the removal of the value key 'Param1' at

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\Instance\InitPropertyBag


which is in the first .reg file as


"Param1"="search:"

and remains even after running the restoration .reg file, so you could also
potentially also just remove that manually using regedit.

 

[TomYoung]

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}]

Thanks, I'll give it a try. But, just to make sure I've understanding
what you're saying: that line goes in *front* of everything that's
there, not as a substitution?

Yes, that's correct. In front of everything except for the line

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

When done, it should start in exactly the same way as the first of those two
.reg files, Search.reg - You'll notice that that's how that .reg file
starts.

It's essentially to ensure the removal of the value key 'Param1' at

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f1-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\Instance\InitPropertyBag

which is in the first .reg file as

"Param1"="search:"

and remains even after running the restoration .reg file, so you could also
potentially also just remove that manually using regedit.

Jon:

That worked like a charm and Help and Support is back!

Thanks very much for your assistance.

Tom Young