HTML Help links broken

[Guest]

Whenever I click on a link in a HTML Help page, for example
the "Related Topics" tag at the bottom of a lot of pages, I ge
the following error

This operation can only function within HTML Help

This is weird because I thought I was in HTML Help already
I have applied the KB811630, but to no avail. Any suggestions?

 

[Kelly]

Hi Craig,

From a previous post:

Follow the steps provided here and also the one's listed below:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q177054

Start/Run:

regsvr32 actxprxy
regsvr32 shdocvw
regsvr32 urlmon

Feedback:

My 4 file associations were -

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" %1
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -nohome
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -nohome
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -nohome

And "Internet Explorer should check to see if it is the default browser"
check box was checked.

Pointing them all to "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" and
unchecking the box fixed the mail & News Hyperlink problem.

 

[Guest]

Hi Kelly

I think I'm missing something here. What is the feedback in respons
to? That is what extensions do the file extensions go with

Also, could you tell me what the regsvr32 commands do? They had n
effect, but I'm curious to know what they should do

Craig

 

[Guest]

Kelly

More thoughts on my problem. By the way, I'm running XP Pro wit
IE6 and should have all updates installed (or so the Windows Updat
page thinks)

1) Could I just run hhupd.exe and reinstall over the existing HTML Help
The MSDN webpage on HTML Helps says that one should not do this, bu
I don't understand why

2) When I look at the Windows Update page under "View Installation History
it tells me that the following updates failed to install
KB823182, 331953, 329170, 81163
However the first three show up as installed in the "Add or Remove Programs
section. Curiously, 811630 does not show up as installed even though I hav
run the install several times! Could this be a problem

3) This seems like a problem of a missing or corrupted key in the registry.
It seems the HTML Help links like

mkMSITStore:C:\WINDOWS\Help\Blutooth.chm::/CHM=%20META
a_bluetooth_overview_install;a_bluetooth_dun_overvie

o

ms-its:C:\WINDOWS\Help\howto.chm::/EXEC=,control.exe
netconnections CHM=ntshared.chm FILE=alt_url_windows_component.ht

are the ones that won't work. The last one is from within "Help and Support
which is where I first noticed the problem.

Any further thoughts you might have would be appreciated

Craig

 

[Pete Lees]

Craig,

1) Could I just run hhupd.exe and reinstall over the existing HTML Help?

This won't work, unfortunately, because the HTML Help runtime
components are protected system components in Windows 2000 and later.
In order to upgrade the components you must install a Microsoft
critical update or service pack. You'll receive an error message to
this effect if you try to run hhupd.exe.

2) [...] 811630 does not show up as installed even though I have run
the install several times! Could this be a problem?

The 811630 update should definitely provide the solution to the
problem, which is described in Knowledge Base article 822989.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=822989

3) This seems like a problem of a missing or corrupted key in the registry.

You're right; this is a registry problem. The cumulative security
patches for Internet Explorer mentioned in KB article 822989 break the
registry entries for the HTML Help ActiveX control, which is the
component that ought to be invoked when you click a hyperlink of the
type mentioned.

I'm not sure if it will fix the problem, but you could try
unregistering and then re-registering the HTML Help ActiveX control by
opening a Command Prompt window and entering these two commands:

regsvr32 /u <drive>:\windows\system32\hhctrl.ocx
regsvr32 <drive>:\windows\system32\hhctrl.ocx

 

[Guest]

Pete

That did it!! I had tried just re-registering hhctrl.ocx, but no
first unregistering it. Many thanks

Craig