MSDN 2008 local help error

Question

 

I am getting no local help for VS2008 - but this only happens on one machine.  It works fine on my old desktop, but not on my new laptop (VS2005 help works fine).  Both machines are WinXP SP2.   So the installation DVD is OK.   I have uninstalled and reinstalled, still get the error (Exception from HRESULT 0x8004032E).  Also get a messagebox 'Microsoft Document Explorer cannot be shown because the specified help collection ms-help://ms.vscc.v90' is invalid.  (But it works fine on the old machine)   Any ideas?  The old desktop is too slow, I need this to work on my laptop.

Answer 1

 

Greg, at what point to you see this error (Exception with Hresult 0x8004032E) ? What happens if you try to open a shortcut All Programs -> Microsoft Developer Network -> MSDN for VS 2008?

 

Could you please try the following workaround:

1. rename C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Help

2. go to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Help 9, create a new folder under Help 9 (call it Temp)

3. Move all files and folder (except for the folder 'Microsoft Document Explorer 2008' under Temp

(as the result you should see only 2 folders under Help 9: Temp and 'Microsoft Document Explorer 2008', and no loose files)

4. go to Add Remove programs and launch repair of Microsoft Document Explorer 2008

 

Thank you in advance

Maria Shneerson, MSDN

 

Answer 2

I get the HResult exception error when in VisualStudio and try a search or click on the index area (which is blank - no index topics, no filter items).

 

When I open the shortcut I get the error message:

'Microsoft Document Explorer cannot be shown because the specified help collection ms-help://ms.vscc.v90' is invalid'

 

I tried the workaround and I get the same result. 

 

I uninstalled VS and MDSN completely, reinstalled, and get the same result. 

 

This is puzzling because the install worked fine on my old machine (which has a lot more stuff installed than my new laptop).  VS2005 help works fine.

 

I am hoping to get a resolution to this - I like the fact that you can target different frameworks in VS2008 and don't want to go back to VS2005, and am looking forward to trying the 3.5 ajax features - but I rely on the help, and when in VPN to my main client I can't access the on-line MSDN help.

 

Thanks in advance for you help

 

Answer 3

So to make sure I understand correctly, VS 2005 help works fine on the same machine, correct?

 

Also, when you try to open a shortcut All Programs -> MSDN Developer Network -> MSDN for VS 2005, do you get the error

'Microsoft Document Explorer cannot be shown because the specified help collection ms-help://ms.vscc.v90' is invalid'

or

'Microsoft Document Explorer cannot be shown because the specified help collection ms-help://ms.msdnqtr.v90.en' is invalid' ?

 

Could you please write me at [e-mail]? I'd like to send you an internal viewer so that we could check if it is MSHelp or Document Explorer 2008 issue.

 

Best regards,

Maria Shneerson, MSDN

 

 

Answer 4

Hi, I'm having the exact same problem, we are using VS2008 Team System; everyone got it working fine in their machines (most with XP SP2 32bit) I got Vista Ultimate 64bit, I didn't install VS2005 in my machine because of known compatibility issues, but I installed SQL Server 64bit Developer Ed (which contains a trimmed version of VS2005). The Help for VS2005/SQL2005 works just fine.

 

If I try to run MSDN 9 I get this error:

'Microsoft Document Explorer cannot be shown because the specified help collection ms-help://ms.msdnqtr.v90.en' is invalid'

When I run Help from within VS2008 it runs document explorer 2008 but without any contents.

 

I have completely uninstalled MSDN and Document Explorer 2008 several times, I even used different media and still got the same results!, anyway I noticed that something didnt register righ't since the about dialog of Document Explorer 2008 shows "unknown user", Organization is blank, "unknown product id" and the collections info is blank; but every time I installed it, the installation didn't give me any error.

 

Let me know if you find a solution to this problem, I would like for sure to fix mine!

 

regards,

 

Manfredo.

 

MariaSh wrote:

So to make sure I understand correctly, VS 2005 help works fine on the same machine, correct?   Also, when you try to open a shortcut All Programs -> MSDN Developer Network -> MSDN for VS 2005, do you get the error 'Microsoft Document Explorer cannot be shown because the specified help collection ms-help://ms.vscc.v90' is invalid' or 'Microsoft Document Explorer cannot be shown because the specified help collection ms-help://ms.msdnqtr.v90.en' is invalid' ?   Could you please write me at [e-mail]? I'd like to send you an internal viewer so that we could check if it is MSHelp or Document Explorer 2008 issue.   Best regards, Maria Shneerson, MSDN

Answer 5

Manfredo, were you installing the library (and Dexplore) as an admin? Are you running them as an admin? If not, could you please re-loggin as an admin and see if it changes anything?

 

Maria

Answer 6

Well my user is the local administrator, but if you'd like I can uninstall MSDN (and Dexplorer) and run setup explicitly in admin mode (right clicking setup and selecting run as administrator), I've been trying stuff for a few days now, and I'm not 100% sure if I tried running setup this way, anyway I'll try it today and get back to you....

 

Thanks for the quick reply,

 

best regards,

 

Manfredo.

Answer 7

 

Maria, I just completely uninstalled the MSDN help and Dexplorer, then I went to the MSDN directory in the DVD, right clicked SETUP.EXE then I chose RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR and reinstalled everything.

 

But.... got the same results....

 

Any other idea would be appreciated,

 

best regards,

 

Manfredo.

Answer 8

I just spent a couple of days experiencing all the symptoms in this thread.

Then I fixed it!

Log on as the local administrator. It's not enough just be be a member of the Administrators group or run elevated. You have to be that built-in guy.

Then it worked fine. And to my amazement continued to work when I logged on again with my domain userid.

 

I hope you other sufferers can reproduce this.

 

/jeremy

Answer 9

Jeremy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Dude, you are sooooooooooooooo right!

 

I went in my local users, activated the Administrator account, then I logged in using that account, uninstalled completely the MSDN and Dexplorer, then reinstalled it and for my surprise this time IT DID WORK!

 

Then I logged off from the admin account logged in with my account, disabled the admin account (to get everything back to where I started), and the MSDN still works!

 

So, thank you!!!

 

For my surprise the solution was really simple....

 

Manfredo.

Answer 10

I have the same error and followed the above instructions.

 

I can not open MSDN from the shortcut.  But, I can open VS 2008 and open MSDN from there.  Please advise.

 

SailDriver