need help and support with Help and Support

[John E.]

As part of cleaning up my hard drive, I ran the registry cleaner in
EasyCleaner. As there were not that many unassociated keys, I did not back
up the registry (won't do that again) but deleted the keys. Everything is
fine except when I click on the Help and Support icon in the Start menu. I
get the hourglass for about a second, but then nothing. I must have deleted
a key to initiate the H&S program. What can I do to get the icon to launch
the program?

One other thing--I used to have a wireless network icon in the System Tray
that would show up after every reboot. It doesn't now. I must have done
that one in also. How do I get it to launch at startup? It is not listed
in msconfig. And there must be 50 folder with "Start" in the name. Is one
of these the "real" start folder, where those programs will launch at
startup?
Thanks
John

 

[Guest]

when you say nothing happens after the hour glass appears, what do you mean? Does the screen just 'hang' with the hour glass, forcing you to quit the program, or perorm a restart or shutdown?
here are a couple of things you can try,

Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, type services.msc /s, and then click OK.
Double-click Help and Support.
For Startup type, click Automatic, and then click OK

or, read the ms article

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;311842&Product=winxp

as far the missing icon, read this,
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825826&Product=winxp

 

[John E.]

When I select the H&S icon, the hourglass runs for 1-2 seconds, but does not
launch. No other issues, all other programs run fine after that, its just
that H&S won't load.

I tried running the services as you mentioned below with no success, even
after reboot.

I did notice in regedit, there is no registry key in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Paths\Helpctr.exe

only the Name "Default" and Type "Reg_SZ". In the Knowledge Base article
305666 for Win Me, there should be a registry entry that reads:
C:\Windows\PCHealth\Helpctr\Binaries\Helpctr.exe

Is this the problem, and is this entry the same for WinXP? I hesitate to
add it without knowing. Would you please check your registry to see what it
says?
Thanks again for your help and support.
John

when you say nothing happens after the hour glass appears, what do you

mean? Does the screen just 'hang' with the hour glass, forcing you to quit
the program, or perorm a restart or shutdown?

 

[Guest]

mine is as it should be, and I think you can right click default>modify, then add the string that is missing, reboot and see what happens, however, maybe you should get a second opinion.
here is the missing string
C:\WINDOWS\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Binaries\HelpCtr.exe

 

[Guest]

forgot to confirm that I have xp home

When I select the H&S icon, the hourglass runs for 1-2 seconds, but does not
launch. No other issues, all other programs run fine after that, its just
that H&S won't load.

I tried running the services as you mentioned below with no success, even
after reboot.

I did notice in regedit, there is no registry key in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Paths\Helpctr.exe

only the Name "Default" and Type "Reg_SZ". In the Knowledge Base article
305666 for Win Me, there should be a registry entry that reads:
C:\Windows\PCHealth\Helpctr\Binaries\Helpctr.exe

Is this the problem, and is this entry the same for WinXP? I hesitate to
add it without knowing. Would you please check your registry to see what it
says?
Thanks again for your help and support.
John


mean? Does the screen just 'hang' with the hour glass, forcing you to quit
the program, or perorm a restart or shutdown?

 

[John E.]

I did a System Restore to two days back. That solved the problem, whatever
it was.
Thanks