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No help available in VB6.

Visual Studio217
Hi all.



I found out that Help in VB6 does not work

anymore. I get "An unknown error has occurred".

So I Googled for it, but the info on this message

is huge. Nevertheless I found that I had to delete

some file (forgot the name of it) but I was unable

to do so. The file could not be deleted.



At last I tried to reinstall the CD MSDN Library.

But that didn't get my helpfiles back either.



It might have to do with Vista which is on my new

PC, but then again, I have this PC for 9 months now.

Can't imagine I never had to use Help in 9 months...

Is there a way to reinstall the help?

Bert.


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Re:No help available in VB6.

Bert van den Dongen wrote:

Quote
At last I tried to reinstall the CD MSDN Library.

But that didn't get my helpfiles back either.



You need to install an Oct2001 (or earlier) version of MSDN.

--

.NET: It's About Trust!

vfred.mvps.org">vfred.mvps.org





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Re:No help available in VB6.

"Bert van den Dongen" <bertdon@tiscali.nl>wrote in message



Quote
It might have to do with Vista which is on my new

PC, but then again, I have this PC for 9 months now.

Can't imagine I never had to use Help in 9 months...

Is there a way to reinstall the help?



The VB6 Help files work fine on my own Vista machine Bert. How did you

attempt to install them? I believe that User Account Control must be turned

ON for some VB stuff to install properly, but that you need to right click

the installer and use "Run as Admin". I haven't tried installing with UAC

off, but as far as I know some VB6 stuff will not instal if it is turned

off. Or perhaps you are using the wrong MSDN disks? As fars as I know, only

one specific set will install the help files for you. If you're unsure as to

which set you are using I can send you copies of my own two MSDN CDs, which

installed fine on my own Vista machine (purely for test purposes of

course!).



Mike





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Re:No help available in VB6.

Thank you for your reply, Mike.

The MSDN Library CD's I have came with VB6.

I think it was around 1999-2000 and on the disks

I read "C 1992-1998 Microsoft Corp....", so they

must be the right ones, I guess.



I will now try to reinstall them using "Run as Admin".

The UAC is off now, but if installing fails again I will

switch it on and retry.



Thanks for your offer to use your CD's but as I have

the *original* disks I don't think that yours will make a

difference.



I'll be back on this matter.

Bert.





"Mike Williams" <gagamomo@talktalk.net>schreef in bericht

Quote
"Bert van den Dongen" <bertdon@tiscali.nl>wrote in message

news:47f2093a$0$24396$5fc3050@news.tiscali.nl...



>It might have to do with Vista which is on my new

>PC, but then again, I have this PC for 9 months now.

>Can't imagine I never had to use Help in 9 months...

>Is there a way to reinstall the help?



The VB6 Help files work fine on my own Vista machine Bert. How did you

attempt to install them? I believe that User Account Control must be

turned ON for some VB stuff to install properly, but that you need to

right click the installer and use "Run as Admin". I haven't tried

installing with UAC off, but as far as I know some VB6 stuff will not

instal if it is turned off. Or perhaps you are using the wrong MSDN disks?

As fars as I know, only one specific set will install the help files for

you. If you're unsure as to which set you are using I can send you copies

of my own two MSDN CDs, which installed fine on my own Vista machine

(purely for test purposes of course!).



Mike







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Re:No help available in VB6.

Back again, Mike.

So I first used setup.exe to delete existing installations.

Then I ran setup again for (full) installation.

Same problem: "An unknown error occurred.".

Both times of course "As Administrator".



Then I switched the UAC on and restarted the PC.

Again I deleted the previous install and started a new

full installation... And now all problems are over!



That was a very good tip, Mike. Thank you very much.

Bert.





"Mike Williams" <gagamomo@talktalk.net>schreef in bericht

Quote
"Bert van den Dongen" <bertdon@tiscali.nl>wrote in message

news:47f2093a$0$24396$5fc3050@news.tiscali.nl...



>It might have to do with Vista which is on my new

>PC, but then again, I have this PC for 9 months now.

>Can't imagine I never had to use Help in 9 months...

>Is there a way to reinstall the help?



The VB6 Help files work fine on my own Vista machine Bert. How did you

attempt to install them? I believe that User Account Control must be

turned ON for some VB stuff to install properly, but that you need to

right click the installer and use "Run as Admin". I haven't tried

installing with UAC off, but as far as I know some VB6 stuff will not

instal if it is turned off. Or perhaps you are using the wrong MSDN disks?

As fars as I know, only one specific set will install the help files for

you. If you're unsure as to which set you are using I can send you copies

of my own two MSDN CDs, which installed fine on my own Vista machine

(purely for test purposes of course!).



Mike







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Re:No help available in VB6.

Quote


"Mike Williams" <gagamomo@talktalk.net>schreef in bericht

news:uYLSRFDlIHA.5396@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>

>If you're unsure as to which set you are using I can send you copies of

>my own two MSDN CDs, which installed fine on my own Vista machine





You should read your license Mike. You do not have the right to distribute

the CD's and what you are proposing is illegal.



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Re:No help available in VB6.

Is there please someone who knows of a way

to stop these Billies and Micheal C's?

They come up in almost each thread, always

in a negative way and always destroying the

fun of this VB6 newsgroup.

Bert.







"Bill McCarthy" <Bill@NOSPAM.com>schreef in bericht

Quote
>

>"Mike Williams" <gagamomo@talktalk.net>schreef in bericht

>news:uYLSRFDlIHA.5396@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>>

>>If you're unsure as to which set you are using I can send you copies of

>>my own two MSDN CDs, which installed fine on my own Vista machine





You should read your license Mike. You do not have the right to

distribute the CD's and what you are proposing is illegal.





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Re:No help available in VB6.

I suggest you talk to Mike Williams and ask him to cease his suggestions of

providing illegal copies of Microsoft software in here, to stop his anti

Microsoft rants, to stop his anti dotnet rants, and to stop his personal

attacks, etc, etc.







"Bert van den Dongen" <bertdon@tiscali.nl>wrote in message

Quote
Is there please someone who knows of a way

to stop these Billies and Micheal C's?

They come up in almost each thread, always

in a negative way and always destroying the

fun of this VB6 newsgroup.

Bert.







"Bill McCarthy" <Bill@NOSPAM.com>schreef in bericht

news:26214CF2-F43D-4CF7-8886-39EA4FA39482@microsoft.com...

>>

>>"Mike Williams" <gagamomo@talktalk.net>schreef in bericht

>>news:uYLSRFDlIHA.5396@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>>>

>>>If you're unsure as to which set you are using I can send you copies of

>>>my own two MSDN CDs, which installed fine on my own Vista machine

>

>

>You should read your license Mike. You do not have the right to

>distribute the CD's and what you are proposing is illegal.

>





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Re:No help available in VB6.

Bert van den Dongen wrote:

Quote
Is there please someone who knows of a way

to stop these Billies and Micheal C's?



You'll need to employ a killfile, I'm afraid. Trolls are everywhere on the 'net,

and we sure seem to have more than our fair share here.



Quote
They come up in almost each thread, always

in a negative way and always destroying the

fun of this VB6 newsgroup.



Yeah, that does seem to be their objective. Don't pay them any attention, and

they'll lose interest.

--

.NET: It's About Trust!

vfred.mvps.org">vfred.mvps.org





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Re:No help available in VB6.

"Bert van den Dongen" <bertdon@tiscali.nl>wrote in message



Quote
Back again, Mike. So I first used setup.exe to

delete existing installations. Then I ran setup again

for (full) installation. Same problem: "An unknown

error occurred.". Both times of course "As Administrator".

Then I switched the UAC on and restarted the PC.

Again I deleted the previous install and started a new

full installation... And now all problems are over!

That was a very good tip, Mike. Thank you very much.



You're welcome Bert. At first sight it would appear that turning UAC off

might assist in the installation of programs but, as I pointed out, the

opposite is true for many applications. VB6 and the MSDN disks usually

require UAC to be turned ON, otherwise they fail to install. However, they

usually still need to be installed in Admin mode, so turning UAC ON and

installing using "Run as Admin" works fine, as you have discovered.



By the way, regarding the comment made by the troll McCarthy, I was actually

absolutely sure that you were using genuine licenced MSDN disks, and I

offered to send you copies of my own only so that you could test them (as I

stated in my post) so that if they installed using the same method you were

already using you would know that there was a problem with your own disks

and you would then be able to contact Micro$oft for replacements. Always

best to know where the problem lies before spending ages perhaps going down

the wrong path. Just ignore McCarthy. He is a troll, as I can see you

already know.



Mike







-

Re:No help available in VB6.



"Mike Williams" <mikea@whiskyandCoke.com>schreef in bericht

Quote
"Bert van den Dongen" <bertdon@tiscali.nl>wrote in message

news:47f34e4a$0$24397$5fc3050@news.tiscali.nl...



>Back again, Mike. So I first used setup.exe to

>delete existing installations. Then I ran setup again

>for (full) installation. Same problem: "An unknown

>error occurred.". Both times of course "As Administrator".

>Then I switched the UAC on and restarted the PC.

>Again I deleted the previous install and started a new

>full installation... And now all problems are over!

>That was a very good tip, Mike. Thank you very much.



You're welcome Bert. At first sight it would appear that turning UAC off

might assist in the installation of programs but, as I pointed out, the

opposite is true for many applications. VB6 and the MSDN disks usually

require UAC to be turned ON, otherwise they fail to install. However, they

usually still need to be installed in Admin mode, so turning UAC ON and

installing using "Run as Admin" works fine, as you have discovered.





I have some follow-up on this, Mike.

So VB Help was okay and the UAC was on.

I found this UAC annoying (mostly because of me still

having "SendKeys" in some projects), so I turned

UAC off again.

Yesterday I found out that trying to use VB Help gave

the same error ("An unknown error occurred")...

Then I switched on UAC and restarted the PC.

And now it works again!!! Without reinstalling!



So it appears that Help is only *available* when

UAC is on. Maybe it was even not necessary to

reinstall the CD's. Were you aware of this?

Bert.



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Re:No help available in VB6.

"Bert van den Dongen" <bertdon@tiscali.nl>wrote in message



Quote
I have some follow-up on this, Mike. So

VB Help was okay and the UAC was on.

I found this UAC annoying (mostly because

of me still having "SendKeys" in some projects),

so I turned UAC off again.



Actually Sendkeys works fine in a compiled VB exe, whether UAC is on or not

(unless you happen to have a very early pre RC1 version of Vista). And the

alternatives to SendKeys (the Keybd_Event API and the SendInput API) both

work fine, both in the IDE and in a compiled exe.



Quote
Yesterday I found out that trying to use VB Help

gave the same error ("An unknown error occurred")...

Then I switched on UAC and restarted the PC.

And now it works again!!! Without reinstalling!

So it appears that Help is only *available* when

UAC is on. Maybe it was even not necessary to

reinstall the CD's. Were you aware of this?



Thanks for pointing that out Bert, but actually that doesn't happen on

either of my own systems (my Vista desktop with VB6 SP6 and my Vista laptop

with VB6 no service packs). If I turn UAC off on either of those systems the

VB6 help still works fine. I wonder what's different about your machine?

Perhaps it is a different version of Vista or a different version of the

MSDN help files or the Help system? My desktop uses Vista Ultimate and my

laptop uses Vista Business and I am the sole user on both machines. When I

use the Help / About menu in the help files it shows up as HTML Help Control

version 6.0.



Mike







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Re:No help available in VB6.



"Mike Williams" <mikea@whiskyandCoke.com>schreef in bericht



Quote


Actually Sendkeys works fine in a compiled VB exe, whether UAC is on or

not (unless you happen to have a very early pre RC1 version of Vista). And

the alternatives to SendKeys (the Keybd_Event API and the SendInput API)

both work fine, both in the IDE and in a compiled exe.



Yes, I know that, Mike. Just have to make some more changes.



Thanks for pointing that out Bert, but actually that doesn't happen on

either of my own systems (my Vista desktop with VB6 SP6 and my Vista

laptop with VB6 no service packs). If I turn UAC off on either of those

systems the VB6 help still works fine. I wonder what's different about

your machine? Perhaps it is a different version of Vista or a different

version of the MSDN help files or the Help system? My desktop uses Vista

Ultimate and my laptop uses Vista Business and I am the sole user on both

machines. When I use the Help / About menu in the help files it shows up

as HTML Help Control version 6.0.



So I switched the UAC off. Although I'm advised to restart

the PC, I do not. Back to VB and Help is operational.



Then I do restart the PC (UAC still off) and go to VB again.

Now I get the old message about the unknown error again.

NO help available.



I have Vista Home Premium and no service packs

(as far as I know...). VB6 has all the SP's.

I am also the sole user and not connected to any network.

Funny thing, isn't it, Mike?

Bert.



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Re:No help available in VB6.

"Bert van den Dongen" <bertdon@tiscali.nl>wrote in message



Quote
I have Vista Home Premium and no service

packs (as far as I know...). VB6 has all the

SP's. I am also the sole user and not connected

to any network. Funny thing, isn't it, Mike?



Certainly is, Bert. Much of Vista is an unknown quantity at the moment

:-( There are lots of things that should work but do not, things that Vista

should have no reason to prevent from working. It's probably just initial

bugs, which hopefully will be fixed in the future? I think Vista was

released to the public long before it was actually ready, in the rush to hit

the "2007" deadline, and we are all really just using pre release versions,

but instead of Micro$oft paying us to test the pre release version and find

the bugs we are paying Micro$oft! Nice trick.



Mike





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