OFF2000: Cannot Use Help or No Results Returned from Search

ID: Q237355

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Office 2000


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**     THE INFORMATION BELOW IS PRELIMINARY AND HAS NOT BEEN       **
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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.

SYMPTOMS

When you try use Help in any of the Office 2000 programs, either the Help window does not appear, or no results are returned when you search Help.

CAUSE

This problem occurs when the Msohelp.exe file is not registered.

WORKAROUND

To correct the problem, do the following:

Register the Msohelp.exe File

On the Start menu, click Run and type:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\1033\Msohelp.exe" /regserver

Click OK.

Run the Internet Explorer 5 Repair Tool

If registering the Msohelp.exe file does not correct the problem, try running the Internet Explorer 5 Repair Tool.

In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.

Click Internet Explorer 5 and Internet Tools and click Add/Remove. This puts you into Maintenance Mode Setup.

Click Repair Internet Explorer and click OK.

NOTE: The Internet Explorer 5 Repair Tool is not available in Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition (SE).

Remove and Reinstall Help

If Help still does not work correctly, run the Office Setup program in Maintenance Mode and remove Office.

In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.

Click Office 2000 and click Add/Remove. This puts you into Maintenance Mode Setup.

Click Remove Office in the Microsoft Office 2000 Maintenance Mode dialog box.

Click Yes to confirm that you want to remove Office.

Use Windows Explorer to rename the following four files to completely remove HTML help.



   Filename              Location
   --------              --------

   Hh.exe                C:\Windows
   Hhctrl.ocx            C:\Windows\System
   Itircl.dll            C:\Windows\System
   Itss.dll              C:\Windows\System

Run Office Setup again to install Office 2000.

Remove the HelpViewer Registry Key

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 Help still does not appear, delete the following key from the registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\HelpViewer

Start Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).

Locate the HelpViewer key under the following key in the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common
NOTE: The above registry key is one path; it has been wrapped for readability.

On the Edit menu, click Delete.

Quit Registry Editor.

Quit and restart your Office 2000 programs.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about related problems with Help, please click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q205499 OFF2000: Cannot View Help Topic

Q239913 OFF2000: Help Does Not Appear When Clicking Help Topic

Additional query words: OFF2000 dtir HelpWon'tStart

Keywords : kbsetup kbdta DTIR
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb