Monday, October 4, 2010

How to move Microsoft Help Library (Visual Studio 2010)

On the Help Library Manager page you can read that you can not move the content of the library.
I've found a couple of ways to do this actually.


Hacking windows registry
You can change this setting in the registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Help\v1.0\LocalStore

This is a general direction and may change in next versions of the Microsoft Help Library.
  1. Copy your files to new location
  2. Change the key value
  3. Start the Help Library Manager, go to Settings and check the path is correct
  4. Click the Check for updates online link to check your content


First time run... Again
Also you can tell the Help Library Manager to start as first time and then set a new location.
  1. Start notepad or your favorite editor with administrator privileges
  2. Open the file "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Help Viewer\v1.0\HelpLibManager.exe.config"and change FirstTimeRun key value to True
  3. Start the Help Library Manager and set new location
Finally
Open file "HelpLibrary\manifest\queryManifest.N.xml" (mine is queryManifest.4.xml) and correct catalogPath and contentPath values.
Close the Help Library Agent if it's running (look at the tray area).

6 comments:

  1. I'm not an "always online" person, as I spend time traveling, so I needed to have certain parts of the documentation LOCALLY IN MY LAPTOP.

    These same parts (MVC 3) were installed locally in another computer and no matter what I did, visual studio wouldn't install them locally on the other computer.

    Tried your Notepad solution, which worked, but only after I copied the help directory structure from desktop to laptop.

    In a sense, I was able to move the file.

    Thank you for the tips!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Reset Local Library
    To clear and reset your local library

    Kill Agent off if currently running (using taskbar tray icon).
    Delete your current local library store.
    The default library location is %PROGRAMDATA%\Microsoft\HelpLibrary\
    EG. Windows 7: c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\HelpLibrary\
    EG. Windows XP: c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\HelpLibrary\
    Edit the file C:\Program Files\Microsoft Help Viewer\v1.0\HelpLibManager.exe.config and set...

    Launch Help Library Manager (with the branding parameter if you want the normal VS dev10 branding).
    Tip: You could copy and paste this into Windows Start menu > Run command.
    "%programfiles%\Microsoft Help Viewer\v1.0\HelpLibManager.exe" /product VS /version 100 /locale en-us /brandingPackage dev10.mshc

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Vsevolod,
    Please help.
    a) I installed Visual Studio and documentation on drive D
    b) Then decided to move it to drive C. I reinstalled Visual Studio OK in C
    c) I moved Program Data (documentation) from Drive D to C
    d) I followed your suggestion in "Hacking windows registry" OK
    e) Then, when trying to do what you say in "First time run... Again", I replaced False with True, but, when trying to save that file I got a message: "Please check whether if this file is opened in another program", and can not follow the procedure.
    f) I rebboted the system but the problem is still there: I have VS in drive C, documentation in C, buy can not access it.
    Appreciate a hint
    Thanks a lot
    Xavier

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Xavier,
      Note that you can always install Help library as usual from DVD media. This is a most straightforward solution.

      But if you really want to hack then my guess is that UAC prevent you from changing files under C:\Program Files\ directory.
      1. you can copy HelpLibManager.exe.config to your Desktop, edit file than copy back to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Help Viewer\v1.0\
      2. OR you can run notepad with Administrative privileges. Then it will be able to write to that location.

      Delete
  4. Nice post!
    This saving my time and drivespace......
    Many thanks.

    ReplyDelete