Open .CHM Files under Windows 10 x64

Please post all questions relating to Help & Manual 6 here!

Moderators: Alexander Halser, Tim Green

Post Reply
Andy121070
Posts: 37
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:19 am

Open .CHM Files under Windows 10 x64

Unread post by Andy121070 »

Since Microsoft have added on of their many security updates, we appear to have lost the ability to read the content from a network drive. We can open the file on the network drive and see the topics down the left but do not see any content to the right. At best we get "Can’t reach this page" which is no good to us.

We have set the registry keys using the HHReg utility and this has not made any difference.

On my machine, I know I was able to access these files across the network but now I can't. Does anyone have any ideas or working solutions for this issue?
Regards
Andy
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Open .CHM Files under Windows 10 x64

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Andy,

This is no longer possible. Microsoft has decided that CHM is a local format only and it is now completely blocked on all external and network drives in all 64-bit versions of Windows, which are now the standard. You can no longer view CHM files on network drives, external drives or the Internet. This is not a restriction of Help+Manual. It applies to all CHM files.

It used to be possible to unlock CHM files or the folders containing them to allow access on network drives, but Microsoft has now also blocked this option in more recent versions of Windows. This means that CHM files can now only be used for help installed locally on the user's computer together with the software. For help accessed on networks or the Internet you need to use WebHelp accessed in a browser.

Programmers can solve the problem by adding code to their applications to make a local copy of the CHM file on the user's computer and then making their help calls to this copy. We have been doing this for years with the server version of Help & Manual and it works very well.

However, since H&M makes it very easy to publish the same project to both CHM and WebHelp (it's just a question of selecting a different output format when you compile) it's no problem to produce different version for each scenario: HTML Help for help that must be installed on local computers and WebHelp for help on networks.

In Help+Manual 7 you also have the option of using the new EWriter format, which combines the benefits of CHM and WebHelp and eliminates the disadvantages of both:

https://www.helpandmanual.com/help/inde ... writer.htm
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
Andy121070
Posts: 37
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:19 am

Re: Open .CHM Files under Windows 10 x64

Unread post by Andy121070 »

Thanks for that Tim, that is what I was expecting you to say but could not find a definitive answer from Microsoft directly.
Many thanks again for your prompt response.
Regards
Andy
Post Reply