Problems with HHReg

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Rob Davis
Posts: 146
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 9:45 am

Problems with HHReg

Unread post by Rob Davis »

HI
I have just moved my H&M environment to a new Windows 10 machine (Previous env was on Windows 7).
All our H&M projects 'live' on a network location which we have mapped as a drive on our local machines.
On the old system, I had registered several folders on the network drive in HHReg, and thus I could always open .chm files that were in those folders.
This was easy to do, because the network locations showed up in the HHReg window when wanted to add a folder.
But when I open HHReg on the Windows 10 machine, I do not see the network drives.

Is this a Windows 10 issue?
Is there anything I can do about it?

Thanks
Rob
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Rob Davis
Posts: 146
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 9:45 am

Re: Problems with HHReg

Unread post by Rob Davis »

. . and now I have also tried mapping the drive in File Explorer - now I can see the mapped location, but I still cannot open .chm files in the target location.

(just saying . . .)
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Tim Green
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Re: Problems with HHReg

Unread post by Tim Green »

Rob Davis wrote:. . and now I have also tried mapping the drive in File Explorer - now I can see the mapped location, but I still cannot open .chm files in the target location.
No, and you will never ever be able to again. Microsoft has now completely blocked CHM in all non-local locations in all 64-bit versions of Windows and there is no longer any way around it. Since 64-bit is now the standard on almost all computers you can basically forget about CHM anywhere except locally, permanently.

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.
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Rob Davis
Posts: 146
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 9:45 am

Re: Problems with HHReg

Unread post by Rob Davis »

Thanks Tim.

The problem only arose now when I was allocated a shiny new Windows 10 monster workstation.

I was trying to find a workaround. I didn't know it was as final as that!

Been using HHReg for years. Pity to have the rug pulled out like that, but it's of course not your fault.

A WebHelp, etc solution apparently does not suit our application developers. So, we will have to modify our workflow to get around this in a way that suits our environment. Maybe it is just as simple as keeping my old clunky workstation as a 'chm display station'!

Rob
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