Unable to open CHM file in Windows 95

[chatterov]

Hi Folks,

I am developing an online help system for an application that is designed to run on all the versions of Windows. I have developed the chm file and have been testing whether this opens in all the versions. I have found that it opens in all the versions except Windows 95. The error message I get is "The (Windows path)\filename.chm file is not a Windows Help file, or the file is corrupted". Please help me out on this. What could be the problem and what is the solution for this?

Thanks in advance,
Anil Hanagud

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Anil. CHM files require as a minimum Internet Explorer version 4 installed. This was released (I think) with Windows 98 so my guess is that this is not installed on the Win95 machine. To be honest CHM files weren't around with Win95, we used good ol' Winhelp back then. As a result I'm not sure if there are other implications of running a CHM on a Win95 machine.

[chatterov]

Thanks a lot Colum!

[CraigCC]

Hi Anil,

You can run HTML Help files on windows 95 machines, but you will need to install an add on, DCOM95, on each PC the view that accesses the help.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=D7A4DE78-81A9-4DB7-BEB6-84FF...

This add on is no longer supported.

My recollection is that if you get .chms running on windows 95, they run very slowly indeed. If you really do need to support windows 95, it may be worth considering Robohelp for Word's Windows 2000 flavour of help which allows you to produce a .chm lookalike which runs at a decent speed. You will need to install a few .dlls on each end users PC but it will be worth it.

Kind Regards
Craig