Windows Help (chm) not displaying properly

[Guest]

Hello and thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Sometime in the past month my system has stopped correctly displaying the
contents of compiled help (chm) files. This happens in, e.g., IExplorer, but
also in any other application that uses this sort of file.

When I access the "help" option on the menubar the Contents, Index and
Search tabs correctly display their listings of items but if I click on one
to select and "display" its details the larger display window shows an
"Action Cancelled" IE message. I cannot get any detailed information to
display.

This problem occurs for all users of the machine.

I am running Windows XP home edition and I have the SP2 upgrade installed.
I have checked the association for chm files in explorer and in the registry
per some related posts and they appear correct.

I ran the MJsDiag program from the "helpware" site. It showed hhactivex.dll
as being unregistered. In fact it was missing. But after I downloaded a copy
and I registered it there was no change.

I have no apparent problems running the "help and support" selection from
the start menu.

My hh.exe file appears to be the correct version. One of the
Windows\UNinstallQ... folders showed older hh.exe which I extracted over my
existing but with no change.

One of the uninstall folders from 2002 shows an older hhsetup.dll. There is
also an older (1998) version of this dll sitting in a "Microsoft Visual
Studio\Common\IDE..." directory and one in windows\servicepack\i386 dated the
same as the presumably active one in system32.

I tried deleting all hh.dat files based on another post to force rebuild but
no change.

I have Visual Basic 6.0 Pro installed on the machine for some small programs
I write and I think (?!) I had an old MSDN installed which I must have
removed (since VB menubar help asks for it). Perhaps the removal of the old
MSDN changed something ?

 

[Wesley Vogel]

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Read instructions at the top
Scroll down to:
235. Restore Help and Support Service

Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
Click on the ? Icon to Expand
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/top10faqs.htm

[?] Why doesn't Help and Support work?

Fix Windows XP Help
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/fixwinxphelp.htm

"Help and Support" link from Start Menu does not work:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/startmenuhelp.htm

Help and Support Center Index is blank with a red X mark
And, "Related Topics" link does not work
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/helpctrindex.htm

Error "Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on
this page" in Help and Support Center
http://www.winxptutor.com/helpsecerror.htm

Clicking "Related Topics" and other hyperlinks cause "Cannot display the
page" error in Help and Support Center
http://www.winxptutor.com/helpctrscripting.htm

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Guest]

Wes,

Thanks for your fast reply. Although I mentioned it a ways down in my post,
I probably should have noted up front that the "Help & Support" system
element works fine! Most of the fixes below seem to be addressing problems
with that system element. Many of them I have tried anyways. I appear to
have a problem specific to the hh.exe system but which does not affect the
"Help & Support" system element.

I realize that I may have made a mistake in posting to this forum. I
understood the name of the forum to mean this is a general support and help
forum for XP ! Now I realize it might be specifically directed to questions
about and problems with the "Help and Support" system element ?

If thats the case can you point me to a different MS forum where I should
post ?

If not, the only thing I can ad to my post is that I tried the vbs script
linked to your reply with no change. The hh.exe system checker/fixer listed
as #141 on kellys korner is the MJsDiag program which I mentioned I had run.

NOTE that MJsDiag reports all dll's and ocx's registered okay but notes the
absence of HTML Help 1.x Workshop Components (thats just a developer tool,
right?) and that my MS Help 2 Run-Time Components are not installed. Could
that be the problem? I thought MS Help 2 was old stuff ?

thanks
Daryl
--------------------------------

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Read instructions at the top
Scroll down to:
235. Restore Help and Support Service

Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
Click on the ? Icon to Expand
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/top10faqs.htm

[?] Why doesn't Help and Support work?

Fix Windows XP Help
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/fixwinxphelp.htm

"Help and Support" link from Start Menu does not work:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/startmenuhelp.htm

Help and Support Center Index is blank with a red X mark
And, "Related Topics" link does not work
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/helpctrindex.htm

Error "Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on
this page" in Help and Support Center
http://www.winxptutor.com/helpsecerror.htm

Clicking "Related Topics" and other hyperlinks cause "Cannot display the
page" error in Help and Support Center
http://www.winxptutor.com/helpctrscripting.htm

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Daryl,

The file assciation for *.chm files should be Microsoft® HTML Help
Executable (hh.exe).


--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

Wes,

Thanks for your fast reply. Although I mentioned it a ways down in
my post, I probably should have noted up front that the "Help &
Support" system element works fine! Most of the fixes below seem to
be addressing problems with that system element. Many of them I have
tried anyways. I appear to have a problem specific to the hh.exe
system but which does not affect the "Help & Support" system element.

I realize that I may have made a mistake in posting to this forum. I
understood the name of the forum to mean this is a general support
and help forum for XP ! Now I realize it might be specifically
directed to questions about and problems with the "Help and Support"
system element ?

If thats the case can you point me to a different MS forum where I
should post ?

If not, the only thing I can ad to my post is that I tried the vbs
script linked to your reply with no change. The hh.exe system
checker/fixer listed as #141 on kellys korner is the MJsDiag program
which I mentioned I had run.

NOTE that MJsDiag reports all dll's and ocx's registered okay but
notes the absence of HTML Help 1.x Workshop Components (thats just a
developer tool, right?) and that my MS Help 2 Run-Time Components are
not installed. Could that be the problem? I thought MS Help 2 was old
stuff ?

thanks
Daryl
--------------------------------

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Read instructions at the top
Scroll down to:
235. Restore Help and Support Service

Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
Click on the ? Icon to Expand
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/top10faqs.htm

[?] Why doesn't Help and Support work?

Fix Windows XP Help
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/fixwinxphelp.htm

"Help and Support" link from Start Menu does not work:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/startmenuhelp.htm

Help and Support Center Index is blank with a red X mark
And, "Related Topics" link does not work
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/helpctrindex.htm

Error "Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX
controls on this page" in Help and Support Center
http://www.winxptutor.com/helpsecerror.htm

Clicking "Related Topics" and other hyperlinks cause "Cannot display
the page" error in Help and Support Center
http://www.winxptutor.com/helpctrscripting.htm

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

Hello and thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Sometime in the past month my system has stopped correctly
displaying the contents of compiled help (chm) files. This happens
in, e.g., IExplorer, but also in any other application that uses
this sort of file.

When I access the "help" option on the menubar the Contents, Index
and Search tabs correctly display their listings of items but if I
click on one to select and "display" its details the larger display
window shows an "Action Cancelled" IE message. I cannot get any
detailed information to display.

This problem occurs for all users of the machine.

I am running Windows XP home edition and I have the SP2 upgrade
installed.
I have checked the association for chm files in explorer and in the
registry per some related posts and they appear correct.

I ran the MJsDiag program from the "helpware" site. It showed
hhactivex.dll as being unregistered. In fact it was missing. But
after I downloaded a copy and I registered it there was no change.

I have no apparent problems running the "help and support" selection
from the start menu.

My hh.exe file appears to be the correct version. One of the
Windows\UNinstallQ... folders showed older hh.exe which I extracted
over my existing but with no change.

One of the uninstall folders from 2002 shows an older hhsetup.dll.
There is also an older (1998) version of this dll sitting in a
"Microsoft Visual Studio\Common\IDE..." directory and one in
windows\servicepack\i386 dated the same as the presumably active one
in system32.

I tried deleting all hh.dat files based on another post to force
rebuild but no change.

I have Visual Basic 6.0 Pro installed on the machine for some small
programs I write and I think (?!) I had an old MSDN installed which
I must have removed (since VB menubar help asks for it). Perhaps
the removal of the old MSDN changed something ?

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Hi Daryl,

See if these commands help, from Start/Run:

regsvr32 hhctrl.ocx
regsvr32 itss
regsvr32 jscript
regsvr32 /i shdocvw
regsvr32 /i mshtml

Restart windows and try accessing the Help contents (*.chm)

If one or more of the above commands fail, please post the error message.

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User
http://windowsxp.mvps.org


Hello and thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Sometime in the past month my system has stopped correctly displaying the
contents of compiled help (chm) files. This happens in, e.g., IExplorer, but
also in any other application that uses this sort of file.

When I access the "help" option on the menubar the Contents, Index and
Search tabs correctly display their listings of items but if I click on one
to select and "display" its details the larger display window shows an
"Action Cancelled" IE message. I cannot get any detailed information to
display.

This problem occurs for all users of the machine.

I am running Windows XP home edition and I have the SP2 upgrade installed.
I have checked the association for chm files in explorer and in the registry
per some related posts and they appear correct.

I ran the MJsDiag program from the "helpware" site. It showed hhactivex.dll
as being unregistered. In fact it was missing. But after I downloaded a copy
and I registered it there was no change.

I have no apparent problems running the "help and support" selection from
the start menu.

My hh.exe file appears to be the correct version. One of the
Windows\UNinstallQ... folders showed older hh.exe which I extracted over my
existing but with no change.

One of the uninstall folders from 2002 shows an older hhsetup.dll. There is
also an older (1998) version of this dll sitting in a "Microsoft Visual
Studio\Common\IDE..." directory and one in windows\servicepack\i386 dated the
same as the presumably active one in system32.

I tried deleting all hh.dat files based on another post to force rebuild but
no change.

I have Visual Basic 6.0 Pro installed on the machine for some small programs
I write and I think (?!) I had an old MSDN installed which I must have
removed (since VB menubar help asks for it). Perhaps the removal of the old
MSDN changed something ?

 

[Guest]

Ramesh,

Thanks for your sugestions. All of these commands succeeded with out error
messages. No change, though on the help problem.

What finally worked, for me, was to dig out an older version of hhctrl.ocx
and substitute it in place. Not a very satisfactory solution long term (since
it seems that this problem may have started with the SP2 upgrade), but it
works, for now, for me.

thanks
Daryl

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Thanks for the feedback, Daryl.