VS2010 Tips #10: How to change Local Help Library path

In this blog post, I want to show you how to change the path of the Local Help Library.

Let’s say you want to move the location of the local content being stored. You can simply move the files and change the path.

Where is it stored now? run the Help Library Manager

image

Then click Settings

image

That is the current location. You can copy the contents of that folder to somewhere. (for this example, I move my help contents to D:\DUMMY FILES\HelpLibrary\)

Then open Registry Editor

image

and then go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Help -> v1.0

Change the value of LocalStore with the path of the new location

image

In this case I changed it to D:\DUMMY FILES\HelpLibrary\

image

Okay, now go to the new location then edit the /manifest/queryManifest.3.xml using Notepad

image

Modify the following to match the new location

image

So, for this example it will become like this

image

That’s it!

You can test it by running Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Documentation

image


Posted

in

by

Comments

10 responses to “VS2010 Tips #10: How to change Local Help Library path”

  1. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by MSDN Forum, Ferry Meidianto. Ferry Meidianto said: VS2010 Tips#10: How to change Local Help Library path http://bit.ly/dkuS7Q […]

  2. m dev Avatar
    m dev

    Your tip worked thanks. But i am still having problems. Even though i added local content in full, every time it asks for online help o

  3. RICHER Bernard Avatar
    RICHER Bernard

    Very well, since the time for which I looked.
    A detail, certainly due to the French version : the file Manisfest to me is called “queryManifest.10.xml”.

  4. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    Nice tip!
    It was very useful.)

  5. duckman Avatar
    duckman

    Very useful – note the name of the manifest file varies.

  6. […] and installed in C drive. If this is not the location you want, you may want to follow steps here to change the […]

  7. Geoffrey Vancoetsem Avatar
    Geoffrey Vancoetsem

    It’s simpler to reset the initialization status of the Help Manager by editing the current file :
    “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Help Viewer\v1.0\HelpLibManager.exe.config”

    Double-check that the Help Library Agent and Help Library Manager are not running, then set the appSetting “FirstTimeRun” to “True”.
    Next time you’ll launch the Help Manager it will be like the first time.

  8. Sudesh Sawant Avatar
    Sudesh Sawant

    I had followed the steps above, but messed up somewhere. Fixed it, thanks to Geoffrey for his comment.

  9. Andy Guo Avatar

    In my case,Microsoft Help Viewer 1.1 can’t recognizes new location until I reboot Windows.

    P.S : Please forgive me for my poor English.

  10. Russ Troester Avatar
    Russ Troester

    Thank you for the tip! This was very helpful.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *