When I tried to launch Windows Help today, via Start > Help, it wouldn't work, saying it was "missing the file HH.EXE or one of its components". I have been cleaning up stuff for the last couple of weeks, but I put virtually everything in the Recycle Bin, and I also can't imagine how I could have mistakenly deleted a Windows system file. Well, in any case, hh.exe was nowhere on the system, nor was it in the recycle bin. After trying some things with .CAB files (basically, archives of Windows system files), I managed to extract a copy of hh.exe and some other likely-looking files. This produced different error messages, but I still couldn't get help going.
With heavy heart, I went to Microsoft's web site, and lo and behold, there were some pages talking about my exact problem and my exact error messages. Trying the suggested fixes didn't work, but I found another page that had a download to update the Help system, and I installed that. Bingo.
The puzzle is, this download had to do with fixing a problem that updating Internet Explorer had caused other people. I updated IE about a year and a half ago, and have certainly used Windows help many times since then. And until today, it worked. Hmmm . . .
Well, it works again, so I'll not ask why. Nor will I ask why Internet Explorer is so tightly integrated into the system help facility, when MS has assured many judges that it is a standalone program.
After fixing the help problem, I ran a "scan for critical updates," also available on MS's web site. (They have evidently resurrected their support for Win98, after earlier saying that they no longer support it. Now they say they'll provide support through June 2006.) I was happy to learn that I had only 23 critical updates to perform! Looking at the details on some of them: "this update can causes the following issues . . .", I fled the site. I am convinced that if I just blast these updates onto my computer, it will break. Many of them have to do with Internet Explorer, which I use only to visit MS's site anyway.
Happy New Year!
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