Starting Help from the MS-DOS Command Line

You can start Windows Help directly from the command line in MS-DOS, or you can use command-line options within Windows to start Help using a program item or using the Run command in Program Manager.

To start Help without opening a Help file, type:

c:\windows\winhelp

To start Help and open a specific Help file, add the Help file name after Help:

c:\windows\winhelp myhelp.hlp

If the Help file is located on a network server, specify the network path to the file:

l:\\server\share\help\winhelp myfile.hlp

Use the -n option followed by a context ID number to start Help and display a topic with a context ID that you have defined in the [MAP] section of the Help project file:

c:\windows\winhelp -n 801 pifedit.hlp

Use the -i option followed by a context string to start Help and display a topic with the context string identifier that you have assigned using the pound footnote (#):

c:\windows\winhelp -i cg_how_pm progman.hlp