"Action Canceled" MS update 896358 blocks CHMs

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Tim Green
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"Action Canceled" MS update 896358 blocks CHMs

Unread post by Tim Green »

A recent Microsoft security update blocks access to all CHM files located on network drives. This affects all HTML Help CHM files, not just those created with Help & Manual. See this posting in the H&M3 forum for full details and a fix:

http://helpman.it-authoring.com/viewtopic.php?t=2870

New CHM Network Registration Tool:

EC Software has now released a neat little free tool that solves this problem. HHReg requires no installation and can be used to register both individual CHM files and entire folders on network drives so that the specific files or all CHMs in the specified folder(s) can be opened normally across network drives.

HHReg also supports command line execution so you can use it in batch and silent mode to automate the registration process. For more details see this page:

http://www.ec-software.com/products_hhreg.html
Last edited by Tim Green on Thu Apr 13, 2006 9:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
jakewolfe
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Microsoft "features"

Unread post by jakewolfe »

Tim---

We have a help manual project on a LAN server, which has just started getting the "cannot display file" error again. We fixed it before and it was working fine. I went and opened up the registry and the values for the zones as specfied in the original posting are still at 1 (based on the previous fix, as far as i know). The chm file opens fine on the local machine.

I checked and the 896358 was in fact installed earlier this week. However, running the fix didn't seem to get it this time, as witness the values in the zone.

Am I missing something here, or is there a new microsoft feature to help us all out again, by disabling commonly used files and features?
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Dean Whitlock
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Unread post by Dean Whitlock »

We are developing now in Cold Fusion, which is displayed through HTML files. The programmer is able to run my .chm file through a standard anchor:

<a href="helpfile.chm">Click here</a>

however, when the chm opens, it acts as if it is being read over a network: the TOC is visible but all topics read as Action Canceled or Cannot be Displayed. This occurs even though the chm is on the same computer as the Cold Fusion file doing the calling. Any ideas why this might be, and how to get around it?

Subsidiary question: what syntax in the anchor would allow opening at a specific topic?
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Dean,

See the reference to opening CHMs from the command line in the help, here:

http://www.helpandmanual.com/help/index ... hmhtml.htm
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Dean Whitlock
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Unread post by Dean Whitlock »

Tim,

On my own computer, I was able to get the chm file to open from a web page, using plain html in a simple html file in the same folder as the chm file. Don't know what it was about the programmer's computer that made it act like it was over a network.

With <a href="myhelp.chm">, IE asks if I want to open the file, and when I click Yes, it opens the help and displays the first topic as expected.

However, if I use the syntax for a command line call to indicate a different topic:
a href="HH myhelp.chm::/topic_name.htm", I get a Page Cannot be Displayed message. If I remove the HH, I get the same message. Next I replace the ::/ with #, and I get the same message.

Finally, I replace the # with a ?, and the chm opens, but at the default (first) topic, not at topic_name. I have tried Topic_name (the way it is in the project) and topic_name (no init cap, the way it shows in the help for a command line call), but neither will cause the topic to display instead of the default topic. Maybe the best solution is just to use browser-based help.
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Dean,

To be quite honest, calling CHMs from links and the command line isn't one of my areas of expertise because I've never had call to do it all that much. I keep meaning to bone up on it but I haven't gotten around to it yet... and at the moment I'm sitting in my hotel room in Amsterdam getting ready for the WinWriters UA conference so my resources are limited.... :)

I'm afraid I'm going to have to wait until Alex or another programming expert gets ont this one, sorry about that. :roll:
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mkf
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Unread post by mkf »

We were getting swamped with complaints from users about this. I coped by adding code to copy the chm from the network drive to the local drive when the program starts up.

Not an ideal solution, but at least we don't have to explain the problem and workaround to each customer individually.
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Winhelp Macros

Unread post by Davem »

I just tested a Winhelp macro script to circumvent the restrictions on opening HTML Help files on a network.

It also installs Keyhelp, so that HTML Help files can open external files on a network using the Keyhelp Shortcut command, e.g. .ppt, .pdf.

Created a 1 page Winhelp project with links to run Winhelp macros. Then used the Winhelp file to launch my HTML Help.

1 link prompts user to install registry fix and click Yes to update. ExecFile('myfile.reg')
1 link prompts to install Keyhelp. ExecFile('KeyHelpSetup.exe')
1 link opens my Master HTML Help. ExecFile('Myhelp.chm')

I also tested a sneaky version (not created with H&M) that attaches a similar script to my main Winhelp window that autoruns on opening, installs the registry fix, tests if C:\windows\system32\keyhelp.ocx exists, and if not installs it. Then opens my Master HTML file, and closes the Winhelp window.

I doubt I'll be allowed to use the sneaky version :shock:

Hope this helps someone.
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Dave,

That sounds like a nice solution -- inoffically, I love hacks like that. :twisted:

If you have the time it would be great if you could post a how-to in the Tips & Tricks forum.
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URLAllowed not working

Unread post by Davem »

I'm trying out the restricted directory workaround without much success, using this kind of syntax from Microsoft's example.

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\HTMLHelp]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\HTMLHelp\1.x\ItssRestrictions]
"UrlAllowList"="\\productmanuals\helpfiles;file://\\productmanuals\helpfiles;http://www.wingtiptoys.com/help/"

In a production environment, my CHM files would be installed on several Netware servers and some Citrix. The Netware application servers all have different names like \\DHVS-APPS01\ etc. but all users have drive P mapped to their location's apps server, so a consistent path to the help files on any server would be P:\OurHelp\helpfile.chm.

I've tried substituting both driveletter based paths and UNC pathnames into the type of syntax in the above example, but neither seem to work.
Any advice would be appreciated from someone who has succeeded with this method.

Thanks
Dave
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URLAllowed not working

Unread post by Davem »

I found an example of the syntax using non-UNC network paths on another forum. The answer is:-

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\HTMLHelp]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\HTMLHelp\1.x\ItssRestrictions]
"UrlAllowList"="u:\\productmanuals\\helpfiles;file://u:\\productmanuals\\helpfiles"

The double backslashes are converted to single when using a .reg file, without them the line is ignored and no registry value inserted.

This works for me, but you may also need to set the HHRestrictions registry key MaxAllowedZone to 1 otherwise topic hyperlinks in secondary windows don't work.

Dave
Last edited by Davem on Thu Dec 01, 2005 1:16 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Correction

Unread post by Davem »

You can also use the URLAllowList method for the HHRestrictions key

Dave
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Dave,

Thanks for posting this -- another couple of pieces in the CHM/Networks puzzle... :)
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URLAllow not working

Unread post by Davem »

Message deleted, previous post corrected.
Dave
Last edited by Davem on Thu Dec 01, 2005 1:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Dave,
Tim I discovered a glitch in my previous post below.
You can always edit or delete your own posts on the forum. Just log in and display the post, then click on the Edit or Delete icons in the top right corner of the post (may be in a different position depending on which skin style you are using).
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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