I've installed MSDN three times and VS.Net 2003 twice.
When I try to go to index or contents or hit F1, VS
always claims MSDN is not installed. In my last attempt
to make help work, I uninstalled MSDN then VS and
installed VS and MSDN to their default locations, going
through the steps presented by the VS installation CDs.
Still no go. Anybody know how to make VS.Net notice that

Brent,

What version of MSDN have you been installing (what does the label on MSDN
Disc 1 say?)? VSNET 2003 will only integrate with MSDN labelled as "For
vsnet 2003" or with the APR2003 quarterly library or later.

It is possible that your version of vsnet2003 shipped with the _wrong_
version of MSDN (I've seen this)... if this is the case, you can obtain
product replacements from 1-800-360-7561. I would encourage you, though,
to contact Product Support Services (@ 1-800-939-5800 in North America) as
this is currently an issue that we're tracking.

HTH,

Alden Raymundo
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[quoted text, click to view]

I had a very similar problem and submitted an incident report to Microsoft.
It seems VS Net could not find ATL71.DLL. This dll was on my computer but
not where VS Net was looking for it.

To see whether your problem is similar you need to find filemon.exe, which
will list the files that VS loads when you access the help system.

Here are the directions I received from MS support: (you may not need the
regmon file)

a. Download RegMon tool from
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/regmon.shtml
b. Extract the file to a temp folder. Close all unnecessary programs.
c. Start your VS .NET and prepare everything ready to reproduce the
problem.
d. Start RegMon by double-clicking "Regmon.exe". Press Ctrl+E to stop
the capture immediately, press Ctrl+X to clear the logs and then Ctrl+L
to set the filter. Replace "*" with "devenv.exe" in the "Include" box so
that only VS .NET activity is captured.
d. Press Ctrl+E to restart the RegMon.
e. Switch to the VS .NET, try to access the help in the VS .NET IDE.
f. Switch back to RegMon and stop the capture (Ctrl+E)immediately. Save
(Ctrl+S) the log file and then add it to a zip.
g. Download FileMon tool from
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/filemon.shtml
h. Repeat the steps from b to f with the FileMon.
i. Please sent the zip files to me for my analysis.

The filemon report listed several locations where VS NET attempted to find
ATL71.DLL. I copied the file to the first path in the list and all was well.

Bill Sharpe

I've got the exact same problem. My Disc 1 says integrates with microsoft
Visual Studio.net help but says nothing about .net 2003. My version claims
MSDN January 2003.

[quoted text, click to view]