Installing WinHelp on Windows Vista

In case you don't know what WinHelp is, it is the old format Windows Help file with the file extension .HLP. This was supported till Windows XP SP2. You could simply double-click on such a file in Windows Explorer and see the help articles in it.

Why you might still need WinHelp on Windows Vista?

You might still be using some old programs which have not been updated for Windows Vista. They might be having their Help menu documentation in WinHelp (.HLP) format. When you click on Help menu of such a program on Vista, you will see this message, "Why can't I get Help from this program? The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which was used in previous versions of Windows and it is not supported in Windows Vista. For more information, see Windows Help program (WinHlp32.exe) is no longer included with Windows on the Microsoft support website."

Solution: Download and install WinHelp from Microsoft web site

The following link goes to the Micrsoft web site from where you can download WinHlp32 for Windows Vista and install it.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6ebcfad9-d3f5-4365-8070-334cd175d4bb&displaylang=en

Note that the web site first validates your copy of Windows before allowing the download. The update only works for Windows Vista Retail. It doesn't seem to work for Windows Vista RC2.