modified Win32.chm

[JRS]

I think the ideal code based documentation should be a Bitbucket repository. The wiki uses industry standard markdown formating and code examples along with user contribution could be added to the source tree. Trying to do it in a Mediawiki format will take a lifetime and no portability to speak of.

[Mike Lobanovsky]

Hi Marc,

This is a good question. But as it happens, now I have an answer to it.

The old help file seems to have a set of Quick Info popup window data that belongs to topics which didn't make it into that particular file and have no mention (cross-reference) in either the help contents tree or any other topic included in the file. Such topics obviously were Microsoft's legacy OpenGL 1.1 software renderer driver, deprecated early DirectX interfaces, and probably a few others.

All the missing files that I found have a __QI suffix in them. The keywords they belong to have no cross-reference to any other topic in the file, cannot be found by extended search in either the .HLP or .CHM version, and for all intents and purposes are dead data. (See an example in the attached snapshot)

On default, MS HTML Help Workshop ignores the files that have not a single cross-reference elsewhere in the project (starting from the contents tree) and compiles them into the resultant .CHM only if explicitly forced to do so; there's a dedicated [FILES] option in the .HHP project file for this purpose.

I didn't find any information in these files that may be of interest or help to a casual user in the year of 2015. Therefore, I didn't enforce MS HTML Help Workshop to include any dead data into the resultant .CHM file this time, while my older compilation contained a [FILES] section of all the 16K topics found in the decompiled 50MB .RTF content file.

So, in my opinion it would be reasonable to dismiss this matter as it is really not an issue. There's no real reason in storing the dead data that you wouldn't be able to access, and especially so if the said data is of very questionable value at present times.

Anyway, thanks for bringing this matter to my attention. I hope you're satisfied with my findings.

.

[marpon]

@ Mike
Sorry to not reply before, I had problems with my old Notebook hard disk...

Very good answer, the win32.hlp file was done with plenty of dead topics , specially for the quickinfo popup boxes, i've also checked the cross-references,
so  I aggree completly with your position, killing what is not convenient.

I've done the same from my side, but obvously your full text search stop list file (.stp) is much more efficient than mine, and your size is 700 kb  smaller than my test.

Could you please , post your .stp file , it will be convenient for me for others Chm files ...

Thanks in advance

Marc

[Aurel]

Yoo
I don't know why but i recently have problems with  .chm files.
One one computer with win7ultimate 32 bit work but after reinstall NOT.
On another with win7 home version i think not work too.
I tried also my son on win 10-64bit and again nothing..

i just recieve stupid errror:
 

[Arnold]

Hi Aurel,

I think .chm files are associated with hh.exe which is located in c:\windows. But this should already happen when Windows is installed. This can be checked by right-clicking on a .chm file. A popup should open with a menuitem: Open with >  and then an option similar like: Executable Microsoft HTML-Helpfile. If this does not work then perhaps something is missing with the accessing rights. There should be more information available in Internet, e.g.:

https://borncity.com/win/2018/06/05/windows-may-2018-update-blocks-viewing-chm-files/

But I myself did not encouter problems with .chm files until now.

[Aurel]

Hi Arnold
and thanks for reply
hh.exe is there same as hhctrl.ocx
but i simply cannot open any .chm file
update of windows is disabled

error is mk:@MSIStore ?

[Arnold]

I searched in Internet for:   
  :@MSIStore
or
  :@MSIStore +chm
and I found some links regarding troubles with opening chm files, but I do not know if any of the messages would be a solution to your problem.

[Mike Lobanovsky]

A highly likely cause why HH.exe refuses to open a particular .CHM file may be that the file has been downloaded from the net. Since a lot of .CHM files contain precompiled executable scripts in order to perform their advanced functions, and may thus contain malicious code, the OS blocks their execution just like it would block any other executable (.EXE) binary or MS Office .DOCX documents (those often contain VBA executable code in their embedded macros).

If the downloaded .CHM file comes from a known trusted source and you want or need to open it by all means, you have to unblock it first. Right-click on the file icon and select Properties at the bottom of the popup menu. This will open a File Properties dialog in the bottom part of which you will see a security warning about the file having been downloaded from the Internet, and a button called Unblock. Click that button and then click Apply in the File Properties dialog, and there you go with your .CHM file unblocked for reading by HH.exe or HHCtrl.ocx.

This procedure also applies to any other file (.EXE, DOCX, etc) that comes from the net and is therefore blocked for execution by the OS.

[JRS]

Funny how Windows 10 sees the VB6 IDE as a foreign invader. 

[Aurel]

yes Mike you have a right
BUT
what if I don't have Unblock button ?
so what then?

yes there is no Unblock button in my case and i cannot figured why?
that is a stupid problem.

By the way i have chm files from original CD-s which also not work,,

[Mike Lobanovsky]

Once the file is unblocked, its File Properties dialog won't show the button or warning note any more. This means you are already done unblocking them, or they haven't been downloaded from the net at all.

Frankly, I don't know what else might be causing such a strange behavior. Are your .CHM files associated with HH.exe at all?

[Aurel]

 .CHM files associated with HH.exe at all?

-yes Mike it is of course.
I never have such a problem on any of my computer before.

[Arnold]

Hi Aurel,

as Mike has already stated, everything should work if .chm files are correctly associated. Did you try to open a console window (cmd) and open a chm file directly? If this does not work then something is indeed wrong. I learned that there is an update for Windows 10 of April 9th which could cause some problems. I do not know if .chm files are affected. But I have setup my computer for installing updates automatically, I trust that everything will go well afterwards.

[Aurel]

Hi Arnold
Ok i tried and again nothing. 

It looks that i must reinstall windows 7 on this comp