HOWTO: Manually Uninstall the MSDN Library

ID: Q240350

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Developer Network Subscriptions

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SUMMARY

This article describes procedures for manually removing the MSDN Library as well as any other HTML Help collections installed on the system.

NOTE: Only use these steps as a last resort. When possible, the MSDN Library should be removed and/or reinstalled using Control Panel's Add/Remove application.

MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: These steps will remove all HTML Help collections from the system. This includes but is not limited to the MSDN Library installations and the Platform SDK Documentation. All customizations for these collections will be lost.

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

If the operating system is Windows 2000, first change the settings to view all the hidden files and folders on the system:

Open Windows Explorer.

From the Tools menu, choose Folder Options.

Choose the View tab in the Folder Options dialog box.

Under Advanced settings, select the Show hidden files and folders option.

The following steps will completely remove all HTML Help collections from the system:

Use Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel to uninstall all MSDN Library installations listed.

Use Add/Remove Programs to uninstall any other HTML Help collections, such as the Platform SDK Documentation.

On the Start menu, point to Find, and click Files or Folders.

Search for and delete all occurrences of the following files on your hard drive:


Hhcolreg.dat
Hh.dat

Delete the installation folders for any MSDN Libraries. The default folders are as follows:


Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\MSDN98 (for the MSDN Library for Visual Studio 6.0)
Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\MSDN (for the MSDN Quarterly Library releases)

Use Regedit.exe to delete the following Registry key if it exists:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\HTML Help Collections

Use Regedit.exe to delete any instance of the key for MSDN Library under the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

Manually uninstall and update HTML Help. The MSDN Library is dependent on HTML Help for its functionality.

Q201420 HOWTO: Manually Uninstall and Update HTML Help

On Windows 2000, the above steps can cause problems for the Administrative Tools (Microsoft Management Console [MMC], Services, Event Viewer, and so forth). The Help files for these tools may not work. To fix this, you must also do the following on Windows 2000:

Locate the path containing user profiles. By default this is located at C:\Documents and Settings. For an upgrade it may be located under <Windows Directory>\Profiles.

For each user, go to <User Profile Directory>\Local Settings\Temp.

Delete all collection files (.col) from this directory.

REFERENCES

Q216109 HOWTO: Troubleshooting MSDN Library Run-Time/Install/Uninstall Problems

Additional query words:


Keywords          : kbHTMLHelp kbMSDN kbDSupport kbGrpDSTools 
Version           : winnt:
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbhowto