FIX: VB Pro Setup Fails to Correctly Associate .HLP Files

ID: Q100191

The information in this article applies to:

Professional Edition of Microsoft Visual Basic programming system for Windows, version 3.0

SYMPTOMS

If you click a file with the .HLP extension from File Manager, you may receive this message:

Cannot Run Program. There is no application associated with this file. Choose Associate from the File menu to create an association. (This error occurs when running Microsoft Windows version 3.11 operating system.)

-or-

Cannot access the file at this time. Make sure the file is not in use by another program and it is a valid program file. (This error occurs when running Microsoft Windows for Workgroups version 3.11.)

CAUSE

The Setup program in the Professional Edition of Microsoft Visual Basic version 3.0 for Windows adds the following problem line to the extensions section of the WIN.INI file if no association for .HLP file currently exists:

HLP=D:\WINDOWS\SETUPWIZ.INI ^.HLP

If there is already an entry for the .HLP file extension in the WIN.INI file no change is made by the Setup program.

WORKAROUND

Locate the following line in the WIN.INI file in the \WINDOWS directory:

HLP=D:\WINDOWS\SETUPWIZ.INI ^.HLP

Replace it with the following line:

HLP=WINHELP.EXE ^.HLP

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in Microsoft Visual Basic version 3.0 for Windows. This bug was corrected in Microsoft Visual Basic version 4.0 for Windows.

Additional query words: buglist3.00 3.00 Help fixlist4.00

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