I want to take some of MSDN help files offline on a windows machine which does not have visual studio installed on it. the problem is that I cannot find a way to get and install Help Library manager and Help viewer without installing the visual studio or sql server.
How can I install them without installing the visual studio or sql server?
I just wrote an answer on how to do this for an older question, which can be found here.
For convenience, here are the essential steps to get Help Viewer 2.2 to run without going to the trouble of installing a complete copy of Visual Studio 2015:
Most of the files required by HlpViewer.exe can be found on the Visual Studio DVD in two different MSI packages. By passing some additional command line arguments to msiexec, it's quite easy to install them manually:
msiexec.exe /i help3_vs_net.msi VS_SETUP=1
msiexec.exe /i vs_minshellcore.msi MSIFASTINSTALL="7" VSEXTUI="1"
While this installs most necessary files, it doesn't account for all of them ... to keep things simple, I copied the rest of them from a working installation on another computer:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\HelpLibrary2
Essentially only contains a CatalogType.xml and some empty directories.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Help Viewer\v2.2\CatalogInfo\VS11_en-us.cab
Moreover, it's necessary to provide the application with a valid ContentStore path by importing the following .reg file:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Help\v2.2\Catalogs\VisualStudio14]
"LocationPath"="%ProgramData%\\Microsoft\\HelpLibrary2\\Catalogs\\VisualStudio14\\"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Help\v2.2\Catalogs\VisualStudio14\en-US]
"SeedFilePath"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Help Viewer\\v2.2\\CatalogInfo\\VS11_en-us.cab"
"catalogName"="Visual Studio Documentation"
Finally, I created a new Application Shortcut and changed its Target: to read as follows:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Help Viewer\v2.2\HlpViewer.exe" /catalogName VisualStudio14 /launchingApp Microsoft,VisualStudio,14
Et voilà!, with that HlpViewer.exe should finally execute without any problems!
In MSDN to USB v2.5, you don't have to have any Visual Studio IDE installed:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/66595500/3268088
I know its old question. I just run into a problem involving Help Viewer.
my recovery steps are :
get sqlexress installer (if you haven't got one)
after extracting the files, check its folder and find for "help" folder
I got mine "SQLEXPRWT_x64_ENU\redist\VisualStudioShell\Help\x64"
run install.exe with administration priveleges (Run as Administrator)
all done.
Related
I have installed VS2013 and VS2015 on Windows 7.
I have an existing C++ Dll project that was building fine but now all of a sudden it wont build using VS2015 and gives me the error:
LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'kernel32.lib'
From this post: fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'kernel32.lib' I went looking for the kernel32.lib file and it is located here:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Lib\winv6.3\um\x86
When I go to my Projects Properties-->Linker-->Input and select Macros I see that this path is indeed there:
My Platform Toolset is set to Visual Studio 2013 - Windows XP (v120_xp) which is what it always has been set to.
Why has my Project all of a sudden stopped building? What could have gone wrong?
I had this similar problem today with Visual Studio 2013 when I changed my VC++ Directories:
Project->Properties->VC++ Directories:
Include Directories
If the cause is some plug-in/extension that changes your props files, it may in consequence change the "Visual C++ Directories" settings of your project.
So, the solution that worked for me is described on my own answer Can't compile 64 bits Visual Studio 2010 projects, which I fully transcribe to here:
After I asked a colleague for help, we noticed, that even getting
clean builds of the projects from TFS, with overwrite option, the
Project's Configuration Properties > VC++ Directories on my computer
were always different from other computers.
Searching more we found the solution on the last post of Reset
include/lib path, which I will fully transcribe:
use "del %HOMEPATH%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\MSBuild\v4.0\Microsoft.Cpp.Win32.user.props"
is not always the right way.
Better use "del %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\MSBuild\v4.0\Microsoft.Cpp.Win32.user.props"
where the application data folder is normally placed in.
Then I've looked inside the contents of Microsoft.Cpp.x64.user.props
and I've seen that there were things added by Visual Leaks Detector.
Which is reasonable, as one month before, I did a memory leak analysis
using VLD.
So, I deleted the file and now everything compiles fine at 64bits!
I had to install the Visual C++ for Desktop Development.
Open Visual Studio Installer and go to Installed tab. Click on the Change Button on your installed Visual Studio Community Edition. -> On the Workloads Tab there should be a option Desktop Development with C++. Activate that option and modify the changes.
Afterwards it was working for me.
I had the same problem today. As it turned out somehow the SDK 10.0.15063.0 got installed on my system but without the Desktop C++ files. Selecting the SDK in the list of installed programs, doing a change install and there selecting the Desktop C++ options added the necessary files and now I can link again.
I got this error fatal error lnk1104: cannot open file 'kernel32.lib'.
this error is getting because there is no path in VC++ directories.
To solve this probelem
open visual studio 2008
go to Tools-options-Projects and Solutions-VC++ directories-*
then at right corner select Library files
here you need to add path of kernel132.lib
In my case It is C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Lib
Thank you.
I had this following upgrade of some projects from VS2013 to VS2017.
Original project had a manual modification to the "Library Directories" item under VC++ Directories in the project settings.
This meant it did not pick up changes from the upgrade.
Using the option will reset this to something that works (assuming the SDK is installed OK) provided anything other than the default is not needed of course. In my case it was trying to point at the v7.1 SDK but that was not installed for vs2017.
in vs 2019, just run the installer, click modify, and then in the individual components tab, remove windows 10 SDK. then again run the installer and add windows 10 sdk!
I had this similar problem today with Visual Studio 2017. My cause turned out to be a bad environment setting in NETFXSDKDir, specifically:
NETFXSDKDir=C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\NETFXSDK\4.6.1
It needed to have a value of:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Lib\10.0.10240.0\um\x86
I have a more detailed response here:
fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'kernel32.lib'
In VS 2022 I was trying to compile an old solution that originally ran in VS 2010 then in VS 2019. It continually gave me the "cannot find Kernel32.lib" error. I spent 8 hours trying everything, including everything on this page. What worked for me: Configuration Properties -> VC++ Directories -> Library Directories and "inherit from parent" (guessing this sets to defaults) fixed this for me. Also note: I'm using winsock and directinput.
Is it possible to create XNA games using Visual Studio 2012?
Yes, it's possible with a bit of tweak. Unfortunately, you still have to have VS 2010 installed.
First, install XNA Game Studio 4.0. The easiest way is to install the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 which contains everything required.
Copy the XNA Game Extension from VS 10 to VS 11 by opening a command prompt 'as administrator' and executing the following (may vary if not x64 computer with defaults paths) :
xcopy /e "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\XNA Game Studio 4.0" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\XNA Game Studio 4.0"
Run notepad as administrator then open extension.vsixmanifest in the destination directory just created.
Upgrade the Supported product version to match the new version (or duplicate the whole VisualStudio element and change the Version attribute, as #brainslugs83 said in comments):
<SupportedProducts>
<VisualStudio Version="11.0">
<Edition>VSTS</Edition>
<Edition>VSTD</Edition>
<Edition>Pro</Edition>
<Edition>VCSExpress</Edition>
<Edition>VPDExpress</Edition>
</VisualStudio>
</SupportedProducts>
Don't forget to clear/delete your cache in %localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\Extensions.
You may have to run the command to tells Visual Studio that new extensions are available. If you see an 'access denied' message, try launching the console as an administrator.
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /setup
This has been tested for Windows Games, but not WP7 or Xbox games.
[Edit] According Jowsty, this works also for XBox 360 Games.
[Edit for Visual Studio 2013 & Windows 8.1] See here for documentation on installing Windows Phone SDK 7.1 on Windows 8.1. Use VS version number 12.0 in place of 11.0 for all of these steps, and they will still work correctly.
On codeplex was released new XNA Extension for Visual Studio 2012/2013. You can download it from: https://msxna.codeplex.com/releases
I found another issue, for some reason if the extensions are cached in the local AppData folder, the XNA extensions never get loaded.
You need to remove the files extensionSdks.en-US.cache and extensions.en-US.cache from the %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\Extensions folder. These files are rebuilt the next time you launch
If you need access to the Visual Studio startup log to debug what's happening, run devenv.exe /log command from the C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE directory (assuming you are on a 64 bit machine). The log file generated is located here:
%AppData%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\ActivityLog.xml
There seems to be some confusion over how to get this set up for the Express version specifically. Using the Windows Desktop (WD) version of VS Express 2012, I followed the instructions in Steve B's and Rick Martin's answers with the modifications below.
In step 2 rather than copying to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\XNA Game Studio 4.0", copy to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\WDExpressExtensions\Microsoft\XNA Game Studio 4.0"
In step 4, after making the changes also add the line <Edition>WDExpress</Edition> (you should be able to see where it makes sense)
In step 5, replace devenv.exe with WDExpress.exe
In Rick Martin's step, replace "%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\Extensions" with "%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\WDExpress\11.0\Extensions"
I haven't done a lot of work since then, but I did manage to create a new game project and it seems fine so far.
Using HelpViewer local or try to Add or Remove Content from the VS2012 Help Menu always results in message:
The location you specified for installing Help content is invalid, or you do not have permission to access it.
I get the error using using VS2012 Update 3 as an admin, or using command line HelpViewer as admin.
So I think this is a 'specified location invalid' not a permissions problem. I check the registry, and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Help\v2.0 AppRoot is C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Help Viewer\v2.0\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Help\v2.0\Catalogs ContentStore is C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\HelpLibrary2\Catalogs\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Help\v2.0\Catalogs\VisualStudio11\en-US catalogName is Visual Studio 2012 Documentation
And the MSHC and METADAT files are installed at C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\HelpLibrary2\Catalogs\VisualStudio11\ContentStore\en-US
There is a discrepancy: what is the CatalogName? is it "VisualStudio11" or is it "Visual Studio 2012 Documentation"?
I even tried to repair VS to fix. First I used Control Panel Programs to remove HelpViewer 2.0. then I repaired VS 2012. The removal removed the HelpViewer app and files, and the repair restored them. I don't recall and did not note (my bad) changes to registry. But same ugly issue.
There are few related posts on the Internet, but I cannot find complete definitive information about the registry settings in relation to content and exe location
I finally found the registry documentation for Help Viewer 2.0 at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh500508.aspx
I solved the problem by Editing:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Help\v2.0\Catalogs\VisualStudio11, setting the Key, LoactionPath, to the Value, C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\HelpLibrary2\Catalogs\VisualStudio11
Note that the .mshc, .mshi, .metadata files are located at:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\HelpLibrary2\Catalogs\VisualStudio11\ContentStore\en-US
In my case, I'm using Visual Studio 2019 Community Edition on Windows 7 and I have the same challenges when I configured my LocationPath previously to external drive and deleted it because I wanted to relocate it to C drive then, I got the same error messages; but I got the idea from here where it's located in Registry, so what I did is ... I remove this key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Help\v2.3
re-install the Help Viewer from Visual Studio Installer and it works; now i have to download everything again from the Web through Help Viewer as I wanted newer and updated version.
I wish this solution could also help someone looking for answers to the same challenges. Good LUCK! ^_^
This issue might prevail even if you update registry keys, add CatalogType.xml, etc. I solved this as below.
The shortcut for Microsoft Help Viewer was pointing to
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Help Viewer\v2.0\HlpViewer.exe" /catalogName VisualStudio11 /helpQuery method=f1&query=msdnstart /launchingApp Microsoft,VisualStudio,11.0 /sku 3000
Note the version 2.0 and /catalogName VisualStudio11. This was the problem. I corrected the version to 2.1 and /catalogName to VisualStudio12 and updated the shortcut. Things started working.
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Help Viewer\v2.1\HlpViewer.exe" /catalogName VisualStudio12 /helpQuery method=f1&query=msdnstart /launchingApp Microsoft,VisualStudio,11.0 /sku 3000
Helpviewer needs some command line parameters to start and incorrect parameters caused this issue.
In my case the problem (The location you specified for installing Help content is invalid, or you do not have permission to access it.) was that I at some point renamed the folder where Help content was located:
(external disk) I:\10 INSTALL PROGRAMI\Visual Studio\Help Content = current path
I:\10 INSTALL PROGRAMI**MS** Visual Studio\Help Content = original path.
So, after renaming ... \MS Visual Studio... into ...\Visual Studio..., the path was broken.
As per above answer (from 'subsci' user, thank you), I modified the path in Registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Help\v2.1\Catalogs\VisualStudio12 -> LocationPath, and this solved the problem.
In my case (VS2019 Community Edition on Win10), the folder %ProgramData%\Microsoft\HelpLibrary2\Catalogs\VisualStudio15 was missing!
I created the folder but it still didn't work (complained that "A content file required by the Help Viewer is missing or has been corrupted"). I had to copy file "CatalogType.xml" from another version of VS i had on my PC to work. The contents of that file are the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><catalogType>UserManaged</catalogType>
Then Help Viewer 2.3 was opened and it just needed me to select the content to download.
In my case (VS2019 16.11.9) on my workstation I found that
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Help\v2.3\Catalogs\VisualStudio15 only had a key "VendorContent"=dword:00000001
I checked with my laptop (VS2019 help was working), and export the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Help\v2.3\Catalogs\VisualStudio15 branch, and imported the reg file on my workstation - problem solved.
This is the content of the exported reg file:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Help\v2.3\Catalogs\VisualStudio15]
"LocationPath"="%ProgramData%\Microsoft\HelpLibrary2\Catalogs\VisualStudio15\"
"LastUpdated"="01/25/2022 20:01:00"
"VendorContent"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Help\v2.3\Catalogs\VisualStudio15\en-US]
"SeedFilePath"="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Help Viewer\v2.3\CatalogInfo\VS11_en-us.cab"
"catalogName"="Visual Studio Documentation"
I am getting warnings at the end of my VS2012Pro install that I do not understand and was wondering if anyone else had the same issue or knew of a reason/fix. I receive 2 warnings that are almost identical:
Microsoft Visual Studio Preparation
The system cannot find the file specified.
and
Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Preparation
The system cannot find the file specified.
I'm installing from an ISO. I've tried mounting with Virtual Clone Drive and just extracting the files with 7-Zip and using the exe. Both scenarios give the warnings.
Any advice? Thanks.
I just installed visual studio 2012 and tried running my C++ project on it.
compilation fails due to missing "SDKDDKVer.h", "windows.h", etc.
I installed the windows 8 sdk from Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows 8, but after successfully running the installer with the default components (including the windows headers), I can't find any include folder under C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0 or C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A.
I ran the SDK installer twice + tried to repair and still I can't find any trace of the windows header files.
Did anyone encounter something similar?
what am I missing? my OS is win7 x64. I uninstalled VS2010 before installing VS2012.
thanks,
It's a bug caused by VS2012 using the configuration of VS2010.
You have to manually fix the include libraries to get around this (through the property manager).
The substantial modifications needed are :
adding $(WindowsSDK_IncludePath) to the include paths
adding $(WindowsSDK_LibraryPath_x86) or $(WindowsSDK_LibraryPath_x64)
to the library path depending if your building for x84 or x64.
The same problem also exists when you upgrade a VS2010 project to VS2012.
To me, manually fixing the include dirs (see step 1 in previous answer) took care of the problem.