Microsoft Help Resource List

Overview

This article provides a description of the official status of Microsoft Help technologies and points the way to additional resources.

Windows continues to be the dominant platform for many user assistance professionals. In the 2007 WritersUA Skills and Technologies Survey, 92% of respondents indicated support for the Windows platform in their development efforts. However, the same survey shows that the Microsoft HTML Help standard is valued highly by only 50% of respondents. The support for HTML has dropped steadily over the past four years.

The past year has seen significant developments in Microsoft support for Help authors. WinHelp is no longer supported in the latest versions of Windows and the release of Assistance Platform for Vista was put on indefinite hold.

The Official Microsoft Summary of Help Engine Support

While much has been written about these developments on this site and others, many people in the user assistance community are looking for official statements from Microsoft on the status of their Help technologies. The most comprehensive statement from Microsoft appears to be the following:

Microsoft is committed to providing Help and Support technology in the Windows Platform and will continue to investigate new solutions for software developers. The following information clarifies the support in Windows Vista and Windows Server Codename "Longhorn" for four Microsoft Help technologies: Windows Help, HTML Help 1.x, the Help and Support Center, and the Assistance Platform client.

Windows Help - WinHlp32.exe

Windows Help WinHlp32.exe is a help program that has been included with Microsoft Windows versions starting with the Microsoft Windows 3.1 operating system. The Windows Help program (WinHlp32.exe) is required to display 32-bit help content files that have the ".HLP" file name extension.

Windows Help is being deprecated for Windows Vista and Windows Server Codename "Longhorn." To view 32-bit Help files with the .HLP file name extension in Windows Vista and Windows Server Codename "Longhorn", you will need to download and install WinHlp32.exe from the Microsoft Download Center.

Microsoft strongly recommends that software developers discontinue using the Windows Help application in Vista. Software developers who ship programs that rely on .HLP files are encouraged to transition their Help experience to an alternative Help file format, such as CHM, HTML, or XML. You will also need to change your calls from the WinHelp() API to the new content source. Several third-party tools are available to assist authors in converting content from one format to the other.

HTML Help 1.x (HH.exe)

Microsoft HTML Help 1.x (HH.exe) is a Help system included in Windows releases starting with Windows 98. HTML Help is required to display compiled Help files with the .CHM file name extension.

HTML Help will ship in Windows Vista and Windows Server Codename "Longhorn." However, only critical updates to the engine will be made. No new features or feature improvements will be added to the HTML Help engine for Windows Vista and Windows Server Codename "Longhorn" or future Windows releases.

For more information about the functionality of HTML Help and guidance on authoring files for HTML Help, see the Help 1.4 SDK site.

Help and Support Center (HelpCtr.exe)

The Help and Support Center (HelpCtr.exe) was a Help application designed for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. The Help and Support Center displayed compiled Help files with the .CHM file name extension.

The Help and Support Center is not included in Windows Vista and Windows Server Codename "Longhorn" and its features are not supported. Compiled Help files with the .CHM file name extension will only be displayed in the HTML Help application as described above.

Assistance Platform Client (HelpPane.exe)

The Assistance Platform client (HelpPane.exe) is a new Help engine designed for Windows Vista and Windows Server Codename "Longhorn." It is not compatible with any previous versions of Windows. The Assistance Platform client is required to display Help files with the .H1S file name extension.

In Windows Vista and Windows Server Codename "Longhorn", the Assistance Platform client can be customized by OEMs, system builders, and enterprise customers under license agreement, but cannot be used by third-party programs. For more information on customizing the Assistance Platform client, see the Windows SDK.

Sources

The above statement can be found in the Windows Vista Application Compatibility section of the Microsoft Developer Network in an article called "Help Engine Support":
 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb757030.aspx External link

An alternate source is The Application Compatibility Cookbook for Windows Vista. This is a guide for developers about features in Vista. Select "Help Engine Support" from the Contents:
 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Aa480152.aspx External link

The Cookbook is also available as a downloadable document:
 http://devreadiness.org/files/5/white_papers/entry10.aspx External link

Official Microsoft Supporting Information and Downloads

For further information about the technologies referenced above, there are the following resources.

HTML Help

This section of MSDN provides all of the details about HTML Help, including documentation and links to downloads:
 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms670169.aspx External link

The download page is here:
 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms669985.aspx External link

WinHelp

Information about the current status of WinHelp can be found in KB917607:
 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607 External link

The WinHelp files are available on the Microsoft download site here:
 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6EBCFAD9-D3F5-4365-8070-334CD175D4BB&displaylang=en External link

Assistance Platform

Information about the current status of AP is slim and only marginally useful. There had been a lot of information posted about AP in the past, including descriptions of MAML. However, that has all been pulled from view.

The Assistance Platform Team Blog is still posted, but the last post was in October of 2005:
 http://blogs.msdn.com/apblog External link

A few brief topics about Windows Vista Help are on MSDN:
 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms728717.aspx External link

Sources for more detailed information

There are several sources for more detailed, independent overviews and analyses of the various Microsoft Help offerings.

The MS Help Wiki was created by Microsoft Help MVPs and maintained by the Help authoring community:
 http://www.mshelpwiki.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=MsHelp External link

The Helpware Group provides an ongoing review of developments with Microsoft Help:
 http://helpware.net/aphelp/default.htm External link

help-info.de is a site that archived a lot of the AP info before it was pulled off MSDN:
 http://www.help-info.de/en/Help_Info_AP_Help/ap_help.htm External link

Other Help Technologies

Help 2 for Visual Studio

The Microsoft Help v.2 technology was announced in 2001 as the replacement for HTML Help. This effort was later cancelled. However, the core components were released in a form limiting it to use with Visual Studio.

The Visual Studio .NET Help Integration Kit 2003 is here:
 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/bb608422.aspx External link

Detailed information and tools on how to work with MS Help 2 is available at The Helpware Group here:
 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/bb608422.aspx External link

Sandcastle

Sandcastle is a subset of the tools used at Microsoft to create managed reference API documentation. It automates the generation of managed reference documentation in several different formats from /// comments. It is based on a very flexible and extensible architecture that can be adapted to many different requirements.

The main Sandcastle information page is here:
 www.codeplex.com/Sandcastle External link

Help for Windows CE and Pocket PC


Developing Microsoft Windows CE Help for the Pocket PC and Handheld PC
 http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/wce/maintain/cehelp3.mspx?mfr=true External link

Developing Microsoft Windows CE Help for the Palm-size PC and Handheld PC Pro
 http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/wce/maintain/cehelp3.mspx?mfr=true External link

Microsoft Windows CE Help for the Pocket PC 2002:
 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms839648.aspx External link

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Joe Welinske: jjw *at* writersua.com
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