No Help! How do I get it back?

As was mentioned in one of the comments on Aaron Marten's blog and in the VSIP Extras Beta newsgroup, there is a problem with installing the VSIP Extras help files. If you have VS, MSDN, & VSIP (w/Extras) installed on a non-system drive, you may notice that ONLY the VSIP docs show up when you go to Help->Contents in VS. Oops. There is a workaround that we have that should fix the problem. You can just do the following:

1. Open the command window (CTRL+ALT+A) and execute 'View.ShowWebBrowser ms-help://MS.VSCC.2003/VSCCCommon/cm/CollectionManager.htm'
2. Uncheck all boxes
3. Click 'Update VSCC'
4. Restart Visual Studio
5. Open the command window (CTRL+ALT+A) and execute 'View.ShowWebBrowser ms-help://MS.VSCC.2003/VSCCCommon/cm/CollectionManager.htm'
6. Check all boxes
7. Click 'Update VSCC'
8. Restart Visual Studio

This will basically 'refresh' all the help files in the VS help collection. Please use the 'Contact' link on this blog to let Dr. know if this does not work on your system. Including any relevant details would be helpful. Thanks!

Thanks

Dr. eX

Comments

• Anonymous
  April 01, 2004
  Just tried this in VS 2002 and now have no index or contents!
• Anonymous
  April 01, 2004
  Works perfectly, thanks!
• Anonymous
  April 01, 2004
  Hi Ben, VSIP Extras is only for VS .NET 2003, not version 2002 (which makes me wonder why you needed to try this in the first place). What exactly did you try to do?
  
  Email me: aaronm <AT> microsoft.com
• Anonymous
  April 03, 2004
  It doesn't work for me. I get the following error:
  ---------------------------
  Visual Studio .NET Combined Help Collection Manager
  ---------------------------
  Error Number: -2147220626
  Error Description: Another transaction has locked the registration files. Please wait until it is finished.
  ---------------------------
  OK
  ---------------------------
  I have no idea what might be locking them. I'm freshy logged in.
  
• Anonymous
  April 03, 2004
  Well, I don't know if it's safe or not, but removing the .lck files from Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataMicrosoft Help made the error go away.
  
• Anonymous
  April 16, 2004
  Doesn't work for me. VS.NET 2003, with VSIP and Extras. If I choose the VSIP help collection, that's all I get -- VSIP Help. When I follow the procedure on this page, the only change is that now Combined Help also has only VSIP. So, it seems that I can view VSIP help and nothing else, or view my Visual Studio Help without VSIP. Can't get both at the same time.
• Anonymous
  April 19, 2004
  Hi Dave,
  Could you get in touch with us via email and send some more details on how we can repro this? (Go to my blog and click "Contact") For example, your drive setup and where you install items. Also, please make sure you read the readme file as it contains information about known issues with VSIP Extras.
  
  Thanks!
  Aaron Marten (MSFT)
  VSIP QA
  
• Anonymous
  April 24, 2004
  Is there a help collection editor for Whidbey?
• Anonymous
  May 05, 2004
  Hi Scott,
  Thanks for your response. Could you send the good doctor a more detailed explanation of what kind functionality you need for this help collection editor? Thanks
  
  Chetan N Parmar(MSFT)
  VSIP Team
  
• Anonymous
  June 28, 2004
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  June 28, 2004
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  June 30, 2004
  Scott,
  
  There is a MSDN archive manager in VS 2005 and hopefully it what you are looking for.
  
  --
  Cheers,
  Saurabh
  
  VS Help & Community team
  http://blogs.msdn.com/vshelpcom
• Anonymous
  August 02, 2004
  Could not load type ....
  from assembly ...
  Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null because the parent does not exist.
• Anonymous
  August 03, 2004
  Hi Hossein,
  Could you send us some more deatils on your problem? Are you getting an error message like the above when you attempt to repair help? Please get in touch with me directly: aaronm<AT>microsoft.com.
  
  Thanks,
  Aaron Marten