Help Center and System Info not working

[Guest]

When I try to open either the Help Center or System Information I get a brief
hour glass cursor and then nothing happens. I went thru all of the
suggestions at Kelly's Korner Help and Support FAQ without results. The Help
Center service is running, but none of the Help processes are running though.
The paths for both seem to be correct. The index.dat file for msinfo32 is
present (I even replaced it with a known working one just in case). I virus
and spyware scanned. I tried an inplace Windows reinstall. What else would
cause both of these to not function at all?

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

For the Help and Support issue, here is a couple of options starting with a
DLL registration. (Proceed to next method if one fails to resolve the
problem):

Type in Start, Run dialog:

helpctr -regserver
regsvr32 itss
regsvr32 hhctrl.ocx
regsvr32 jscript

Fix Windows XP Help - from Doug's site:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/fix_windows_xp_help.htm

In _nothing_ helps, try reinstalling HelpCenter:

Open %systemroot%\inf folder and locate the PCHealth.inf file (might show as
PCHealth in W.Explorer). Right-click the file and choose "Install". Insert
your XP CD when prompted. If you have a Service Pack installed, be sure to
point to the %Windir%\i386\ServicePackFiles folder, or your slipstreamed XP
CD (if available).