Can I reinstall Help & Support or reinstall/repair Win XP to enab

[Guest]

My Help and Support stopped working about the same time I installed the free
utility GhostScript / Gsview so that I could view postscript files.

I tried posting a question on another usenet newsgroup, but the answer of:
click on install on the C:\windows\inf\pchealth.inf file - resulted in a
search for the file dataspec.xml in the C:\windows\inf\i386 directory -

Unfortunately, such directory does not exist on my C: drive. Furthermore,
the "K:\I386" directory of my Original Win XP Home CD does not contain any
file named "dataspec.xm_ or .xml"

And beyond that, I ordered a new Win XP SP2 CD, which just now arrived by
mail - and there is no "K:\I386" directory on that CD, nor does the CD
apparently contain any file called "dataspec" (including dataspec.*).

Another effort toward resolution occurred via another usenet post I read,
which suggested opening the XP command line feature and executing a system
status command, that displayed enabled services - I used that method, and
switched the Help and Support service off and then on again. Such action did
not in-fact enable the Help feature (including, of course restart), despite
the indication that the Help and Support service was enabled.

I am, and have been, running a purchased-CD version of Win XP Home, with a
downloaded SP2 revision (I have not installed the new Win XP SP2 CD).

Basically, I want to find out the means and methods for enabling my Win XP
SP2 Help and Support feature, that apparently has been disabled or otherwise
rendered inoperative.

Is a reinstall of Win XP possible and the best choice? What are the other
options?

Thank you for your courteous attention to this matter.

Best regards,
Josh Fey

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Josh,

The updated system files would be present in the following location, if
you've applied SP2 separately.

%Systemroot%\ServicePackFiles\i386


BTW, why not try a System Restore rollback?

 

[Guest]

Thank you for the reply. I did find the directory you indicated. I tried
the pchealth.inf reinstall and the Help & Support still did not enable. I
noted that concerning several files for which the "locate" dialog box
appeared, I could not find on the Original Win XP CD's, but did locate on my
C: drive ( could those be in a .cab or other compressed file on the CD's ???
). I used the respecetive existing C:\. . . files but the Help and Support
still does not function.

I will try the rollback and some other methods cited by the other post
replies. Thank you again.

Josh