Location of local help files - beta2 vs RC

Question

The readme for VS2010RC states the location for local help files changed between beta2 and RC and that uninstalling the beta2 will not remove them. But then it fails to mention the old and new folder locations. I'd like to manually delete the local help content from beta2, can anyone tell me what I can safely delete?

I also can't get local help working in RC, I've reported that bug, but would be willing to work with a microsoftie if they want to track it down on my box.

Answer 1

The Beta2 location for local help content is %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Help3. Feel free to delete this folder. The RC location for local help content is %ALLUSERSPROFILE\Microsoft\HelpLibrary. What is the issue you are seeing when you try to use local help?

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Charles

Answer 2

Thanks, I will go ahead and delete the Help3 folder as it's almost 2GB.

The problem I am seeing is when I switch to use Local Help. If I highlight a common term in code, such as EventHandler, and hit F1 I get an error page stating "The topic you requested could not be found in local help". I went through the steps to download all the help content locally, so I'm not sure what is wrong. When I go to "check for updates online" they all show as up to date.

Answer 3

Do you also get 'The topic you requested could not be found in local help' when you click View Documentation from the Help menu in the IDE?

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Charles

Answer 4

No, that seems to work fine. I get the same content as when I use online help.

Answer 5

It is possible that we did not package the specific topic you are looking for offline consumption. Can you please send me the URL you see when you get 'The topic you requested could not be found in local help', so that I can investigate?

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Charles

Answer 6

When I highlight the term EventHandler in code and press F1 it tries to navigate to this link:

http://127.0.0.1:47873/help/1/ms.help?product=VS&productVersion=100&method=f1&query=System.EventHandler&locale=en-US&category=DevLang:csharp%00TargetFrameworkMoniker:.NETFramework,Version%3Dv4.0

Answer 7

Thanks for the details George. This topic is part of the .Net Framework 4 book. Do you have this book installed locally?

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Charles

Answer 8

Interestingly I didn't. On Tuesday when I installed VS2010 RC and went into the Help Library Manager and in the Find Content Online section I added all available topics. I didn't really note what the topics were, I just added them all.

This morning I went back into the Library Manager and see that there were two new topics available. Net 4 and Net 3.5. I downloaded them and all of the basic F1 links that I've tried are working fine now.

Did those topics get added in the last 48hrs or did I somehow miss them originally? Maybe I was just too much on the bleeding edge of the RC release and downloaded content before it was all available...

By the way, I wanted to say Great Job with the new help system. It is a huge improvement over the old. (I'm assuming you're with Microsoft)

Thanks for the help.

Answer 9

All the books were available at the same time. The .NET 4 and .NET 3.5 books were under a different category 'Development Frameworks' and you probably missed that and went ahead and installed all books under Visual Studio 2010.

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I am one of the PMs responsible for the new Help System in Microsoft.

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Charles

Answer 10

Ditto!!!

Great job!!

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Rob Chandler http://Helpware.net

Answer 11

Good! Many thanks for your help!

Answer 12

Interestingly I didn't. On Tuesday when I installed VS2010 RC and went into the Help Library Manager and in the Find Content Online section I added all available topics. I didn't really note what the topics were, I just added them all.

This morning I went back into the Library Manager and see that there were two new topics available. Net 4 and Net 3.5. I downloaded them and all of the basic F1 links that I've tried are working fine now.

Did those topics get added in the last 48hrs or did I somehow miss them originally? Maybe I was just too much on the bleeding edge of the RC release and downloaded content before it was all available...

By the way, I wanted to say Great Job with the new help system. It is a huge improvement over the old. (I'm assuming you're with Microsoft)

Thanks for the help.

Thanks for sharing. My enthusiasm to install and try VS2010 was aroused. Then we can talk about it later.