winhlp32 on Windows 10/11
Written by WS on .
Error opening Help in Windows-based programs: “Feature not included” or “Help not supported”
If you use a bit dated, but still useful software on Windows 10 or 11 that uses the old winhlp32 help-system (.hlp files) you will get an unhelpful feeling from the Microsoft response when trying to open its help files through the menu or context-sensitive F1 shortcut: it opens a web-page showing options for Windows 7 up to 8.1, but nothing for Windows 10 and later.
There are other sites out there giving instructions on how to fix things. It can involve extracting .msu and .cab files, adjusting NTFS file-permissions with too many resulting UAC-dialogs, and hoping Windows will not put the non-working winhlp32.exe stub back again.
Here is an easy fix: download this zip file, extract, right click on the file install.cmd and choose 'Run as administrator'. That's it. If Windows at a future update decides to overwrite the winhlp32.exe file again, just repeat this process. Keep this folder handy somewhere.
