RoboHELP 6 start-up problems on Windows Server 2008

[Bostjan_Cargo]

Hello,

Our technical communication team has migrated the RoboHELP (RH) 6 environment for building the Help (HTML Help, WebHelp) from Windows 2000 Advanced Server to Windows Server 2008 (32-bit). I noticed that later RH versions do not officially support this operating system. Most probably this is the cause of our problems with this earlier version, too.

We want to use RH with the profile of a domain user account which has local administrative privileges (the user is a member of the Administrators group). After RH is correctly installed using this profile, this is the error message that is reported after the application is launched using the same profile:

Searching the web, I stumbled upon some hints that insufficient privileges may be the root cause. I therefore removed RH and reinstalled it using the local Administrator account. The problem became less severe, however, RH still reported problems (when run either using the domain user account or the local Administrator account):

I then tried to disable User Account Control, register the problematic files manually (using regsvr32): all in vain.

I should note that I have manually installed the same version of the HTML Help Workshop on the system in advance (the same version that was installed in the Windows 2000 Advanced Server environment). I tried installing it with the same domain user account first, and then also tried with installation with the local Administrator account: both scenarios resulted in the above errors in RH. I also checked the HTML Help Workshop installation using MJsDiag (http://helpware.net/downloads/#MJs) and it lists the HTML Help Run-time Components as being registered properly. However, the Version dialog box of the HTML Help Workshop reported this:

And a deeper look into the MJsDiag tool revealed this:

The problem is that I cannot register any of the not-yet-registered files even when the tool is run usin the local Administrator account.

Does anyone have a hint what I could be doing wrong?

Thanks in advance.

Boštjan

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Why are you trying to run it on a Win2K8 machine anyway? RH is not a networked app.

[Bostjan_Cargo]

We decided to choose Windows Server 2008 primarily for the reason that the system will be shared (used by all the team members).

The procedure for our use case is to remotely log on to the system using Remote Desktop Client and start the Help build process on it. I believe no networing is involved.

[Peter Grainge]

I believe that is a breach of the licence but that's a matter for Adobe. The main point is that operating system is not supported.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Bostjan_Cargo]

We purchased a volume license covering as many engineers as they will be accessing the server. According to the RH 6 software license agreement, this cannot be interpreted as a license breach.

Regarding the operating system support: RoboHELP 6 was released earlier than Windows Server 2008, therefore its system requirement could not state anything in relation to this OS. My suspicion is that architecutral changes introduced with Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista/7 prevent RH 6 from installing appropriately.

Thus, I'm asking if anybody has a "hack" at hand.

[Peter Grainge]

I'm surprised to learn that Adobe sold it that way as whilst they do have volume licences, I think others here will confirm that has always been for installations on local machines. I don't think there has been a version supported on a server operating system which is what I was really getting at, rather than the version you have now.

What I can say with certainty is that I have not seen anyone post a solution on these forums.

You now mention Windows Vista 7. RoboHelp 7 was the first version to be supported on Vista and RoboHelp 8 was patched to be supported on Windows 7.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Bostjan_Cargo]

What I find interesting is that the HTML Help Workshop already reports the files itircl.dll and itss.dll as missing (not registered): there are empty version strings in the dialog box. This seems as a problem unrelated to RH 6 that also manifests as a RH 6 problem.

Is installation of the HTML Help Workshop actually required on Windows Server 2008? I found some indications that it is already included in newer Windows operating system versions. Could it be that I messed anything up by installing it (and probably mixing different product versions)?

[Peter Grainge]

Sorry but I can't help you on this as you are in uncharted waters.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge