Help and Support in Vista

How to Fix Windows Vista Help and Support​

   Information

If when you try to open Help and Support in Vista and you get a error message and Help will not open properly, or you get a message that WinHlp32.exe is no longer supported, then this will show you how to fix these common errors and others for Help and Support.

OPTION ONE

To Fix This "Help" Error Message

   Note

For more information, see: Windows Help and Support: KB917607 Article

• The Windows Help (WinHlp32.exe) program is no longer included in Windows

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1. Go to this site: Microsoft Download Center: Windows Help program (WinHlp32.exe) for Windows Vista​

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2. Click Continue at the site above to download and install the patch.​

NOTE: If you get the error 80070422, the macro error code 1037, or the patch above will not install or work, then see: MS KB917607 WinHelp32 Patch​

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OPTION TWO

To Fix These "Help" Error Messages

   Note

These are usually caused when the Content Type registry settings for the file types: .XML, .XSL, .PNG, .JPG, .CSS is incorrect or missing.

• Red X mark appears where the images are to be displayed.
• CSS styles are not applied to the pages in Help and Support.
• Error: Internet Explorer cannot download / from Windows

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STEP ONE:​

NOTE: To make sure that you have Online Help and Support enabled.​

1. Click on Options at the top right corner of the Help window, and click on Settings. (See screenshot below step 3)​

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2. Check the Include Windows Online Help and Support when you search for help box.​

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3. Click on OK.​

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STEP TWO:​

1. Click on the Download button below to download the Fix Help.reg file.​

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2. Click on Save and save it to the desktop.​

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3. Right click on the downloaded Fix Help.reg file, and click on Merge.​

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4. Click on the Run, Continue, Yes , and OK when prompted.​

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5. When done, you can deleted the downloaded Fix Help.reg file if you like.​

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That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Add or Remove Help from the Normal and Classic Vista Start Menu
• How to Join or Unjoin the Vista Help Experience Improvement Program
• How to Create a "Windows Help and Support" Shortcut

 

[Rickious]

Brink, thanks for the reply.

So it it just a file? or does it need registry entries etc?

Was the file I downloaded from the microsoft website was just the install program and accessed the internet to complete the install. Is that correct?

 

[olddosdog]

Note: If you're using 64-bit Vista, the registry fix above won't work. You need to change a different key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\WinHelp]
"AllowProgrammaticMacros"=dword:00000001

Rita, you certainly hold the "Keys to the Vista Kingdom". Normally I would just search the internet for answers to my boggles, but finding finally the answer I needed after many days of ponderance with Microsoft (Useless), you have given me the 2 liner that I needed. So I purposely joined this forum just to let you know
how much I appreciate this. There is a world of us out here that have been evolved into using the Vista 64bit OS, and thanks to Microsofts infinite lack of wisdom, our old software has problems. XP worked fine but then they had to fix it with Vista. Well, I'm ranting on so I'll check out now. Thanks again.
PS You should title this string on the internet as to the real fix for this problem,
namely the macro error code 1037 for help files on older applications.

 

[Brink]

Brink, thanks for the reply.

So it it just a file? or does it need registry entries etc?

Was the file I downloaded from the microsoft website was just the install program and accessed the internet to complete the install. Is that correct?

Rickious,

The file is only a installation file. You would just run it on your dad's computer to install it. It does not need to access the internet to be installed. You only needed to access the internet to download the file. That's all.

 

[Brink]

Note: If you're using 64-bit Vista, the registry fix above won't work. You need to change a different key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\WinHelp]
"AllowProgrammaticMacros"=dword:00000001

Rita, you certainly hold the "Keys to the Vista Kingdom". Normally I would just search the internet for answers to my boggles, but finding finally the answer I needed after many days of ponderance with Microsoft (Useless), you have given me the 2 liner that I needed. So I purposely joined this forum just to let you know
how much I appreciate this. There is a world of us out here that have been evolved into using the Vista 64bit OS, and thanks to Microsofts infinite lack of wisdom, our old software has problems. XP worked fine but then they had to fix it with Vista. Well, I'm ranting on so I'll check out now. Thanks again.
PS You should title this string on the internet as to the real fix for this problem,
namely the macro error code 1037 for help files on older applications.

Thank you OldDosDog for confirming this. It has been added to the patch in the tutorial.

Welcome to Vista Forums,
Shawn

 

[Rickious]

Thanks Brink! Problem solved for me!

 

[Brink]

Your welcome Rickious.

Shawn

 

[vmcnaidu]

hi
when ever i am trying to up date windows it says that u lost internrt connection to update sight and try again.
this is funny that i am working on broad band connection and other sites r responding.

This is the message it is showing every time: "You have lost your connection to the Windows Help and Support website. Try to connect again." how to update windows'

I am using trend anti virus on my laptop.

 

[Brink]

Hello Vmcnaidu, and welcome to Vista Forums.

I'm not sure if Option Two is the same for this, but you might give it a try to see if it can help.

If not, then you can try running a sfc /scannow command to see if it can find and fix any bad system files that may be the cause.

If that still does not help, then you can do a System Restore using a restore point dated before this problem.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[fireplayer100]

Hi Shawn,
I am unable to open HP help and support in vista sp2 64 bit computer (Mfg.HP). When I click the "Hp help and support Icon" I get a blank "Windows help and support" window and get this message,

"Help Topic Not Found
This content under construction
We were unable to retrieve the requested topic."

I have tried your 2nd. option , but nothing has happened. I went to the programs and features folder from control panel and selected " hp help and support" and clicked repair, but it was not repaired, instead a small message window poped up saying," The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable. Click OK to try again, or enter an alternate path to a folder containing the installation package ,'HP help and support.msi" in the box below.

Use source:
C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Temp\{840F1F10-5F79-48CC-B28F-F203261783D9}\ .----> Browse... "

Then when I close this small message window , another window comes up saying," The installation source for this product is not available. Verify that the source exists and that you can access it" .

It was working all right before and now I don't know what has happened. It may happen that I accidentally I might have deleted some important files while removing unnecessary files from the computer. I have also uninstalled and then reinstalled "hp help and support and hp active library " but it did not work.

I found the following in a microsoft forum and tried , but it did not work either :

To run the command in elevated command prompt, follow the steps below:

1. Open Start menu, click All Programs, select Accessories.
2. Right click on Command Prompt and click 'Run as administrator '.
3. Type the following commands in the DOS prompt window and press ENTER at the end of each line:

REGSVR32 MSXML3.DLL /U
REGSVR32 MSXML3.DLL
REGSVR32 MSXML6.DLL /U
REGSVR32 MSXML6.DLL

(Running the command in elevated command prompt should not give us any error).

Restart the computer and try to access Help and Support.

Hope it helps.

Thanks and Regards,

Srinivas
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think

Shawn ,I not sure what has happened . Can you help please ?

 

[Brink]

Hello FirePlayer, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Yeah, the tutorial is not going to help with this issue.

From your description, it sounds like you either have a corrupted HP help file, not all of the files for it are there, or the online support for the help file is no longer available for it.

You could try doing a system restore using a restore point dated when it was working to hopefully fix it.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[fireplayer100]

Hi Shawn,
Thanks for your quick reply. Yes I have tried system restore also, which I forgot to write to you , but nothing happened. I think some .msi files may be missing, don't know for sure, just confused now.
Some times it looks like to me as some system misconfiguration which is prohibiting the hp help and support file to open.

If you or anybody has a solution please let me know.

Thanks again for your help.

fireplayer100