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YAVS2005B - Yet Another Visual Studio 2005 Bug - Integrating MSDN Help with the IDE

Posted 2005-11-19 10:13 PM in Bugs.

I've run into this bug on my home machine, where MSDN's October 2005 Help, or any help for that matter, isn't integrated into Visual Studio 2005. The Microsoft Support fellow in the USENET group says "reinstall" but I'm not a fan. If you get a spot on your carpet you shouldn't have to lay down new carpet.

Anyone figured out how to get Visual Studio.NET 2005 to use or integrated with the MSDN External Help?

UPDATE: Apparently this is a known bug of the "functions as designed" variety. They say:

The October 2005 Library is only compatible with Visual Studio 2003. In order to plug your documentation into Visual Studio 2005 you must use the Library that ships with the product.

Time to wait.

Tracked by:
"Help! Visual Studio help opens SQL Server Books Online" (Ian Nelson) [Trackback]
"Help! Visual Studio help opens SQL Server Books Online" (Ian Nelson) [Trackback]

Sunday, November 20, 2005 3:07:28 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Well,

why would you want to integrate the help that does NOT contain information pertinent to .NET 2.0?

Interestingly, the help "reader" for Visual Studio 2003 DOES read the MSDN that comes with Visual Studio 2005, integrated or not. The content is new, but the reader is not.

Drazen Dotlic

Sunday, November 20, 2005 5:52:55 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

You're lucky - I can't even get the Help that comes with 2005 installed.
I've downloaded the image from MSDN twice and got the exact same problem installing the help!

Thanks for the warning, though.
I was getting ready to download the MSDN Help to see if that Helped.
Maybe next month. :)

Steve Barron

Sunday, November 20, 2005 8:09:28 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Steve,

you might want to check if the image you got is error-free. A few months ago Microsoft started publishing SHA-1 hashes of all ISO images they publish on MSDN Subscribers site.

You can compare that hash with the one computed from the image using one of the zillion utilities out there. Shameless plug: I actually wrote two variants of the same utility for my own amusement - one in C# and one in Ruby. Have a look at my blog and you'll easily find them.

Drazen Dotlic

Sunday, November 20, 2005 11:10:55 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Have you ever tried doing a Repair for the MSDN? Not sure how it integrates but if the MSI does a search through the registry for Visual Studio products on install and then it installs some registry hooks in their then a Repair should rerun those MSI routines, of course I am speculating. Just a thought though!