HTML Help 1.4 - Where?

[Eumerin]

During the RoboHelp install, a message box popped up informing me that I would need to get HTML Help 1.4 from the MSDN website. So after the install was completed, I went to the MSDN website and looked for HTML Help 1.4. And I found a file that seemed to be the correct one. The page title side 1.4, and there was nothing to indicate otherwise.

It was only after the file was downloaded and the install process started that I learned that what I had actually downloaded was version 1.3. And oddly enough, my computer apparently came with 1.31 pre-installed. And now the RoboHelp Tutorial appears to be crashing because of HTML Help (there's an error message about the HTML Help Executeable that pops up just before the tutorial window crashes to the desktop).

So where do I find 1.4?

[Peter Grainge]

Welcome to the forum.

I have not known RoboHelp do that before. I assume this is RH6 you are installing.

I think this link is what you want but I find it difficult to believe that message as RoboHelp normally installs what you need from that download.

http://tinyurl.com/3nznp

Has anyone else seen this during an install?

[Eumerin]

Peter -

Yes, it's RoboHelp 6 that I installed.

Unfortunately, the link that you provided only leads to the 1.3 version that I'd already found. I know page claims that it's the 1.4 SDK, but once you begin to install the program you learn that it's actually 1.3. And as I mentioned in my original message, during the install I'm informed that my system already has a more recent version - specifically 1.31.

[Peter Grainge]

I think I would proceed using RH and see if I encountered any issues. I somehow don't think you will.

Meantime, I believe Adobe are keeping an eye on the forums post the new release so hopefully someone there can comment.

[Peter Grainge]

Sorry, just re-read and see it is giving you problems. I'll see if I can find anything else and hopefully Adobe will pick this one up.

[Peter Grainge]

Did you install using your logon and did that have admin rights attached?

Try uninstalling using the same logon as used for installing, even if that was yours, and then install again. Do you get the same error?

Also did it show where it was installing HTML Help?

[Eumerin]

My log-in has admin rights on my computer. So there shouldn't be any issue there.

It installed in the Program Files directory on the C: drive. The pre-installed 1.31 version seems to be somewhere else (at one point I uninstalled 1.3 and still got the same issue with an "HTML Help Executeable" file), although I haven't been able to locate it. The reference on the Add/Remove Programs list on my computer only seems to apply to 1.3.

[Captiv8r]

Hi all

Perhaps fellow Microsoft MVP Rob Chandler's site will help here.

Click here to view the site

Cheers... Rick

[Eumerin]

Hmm...

It shows I'm running control version 5.2.3790.2744. The first three numbers seem to suggest that it corresponds to one of the later 1.4 versions. But 2744 doesn't match up with anything listed.

But if that's the case...

That doesn't explain why I'd get a message telling me that I needed to install 1.4. Nor does it explain why the only message that popped up during my 1.3 install referred to 1.31 instead of 1.4.

[Eumerin]

An update -

The error I'm getting appears to be a DEP error. Yes, it looks like Microsoft Windows is protecting me from one of those malicious Microsoft programs... You've got to watch out for those things!

On a more serious note, one of our IT guys has also taken a look at this, and we both agree that the most likely explanation for the crash is that the HTML Help 1.3 that I installed probably overwrote something pertaining to whichever version of HTML Help is hidden on my computer system. And so a pointer somewhere isn't pointing to what it's supposed to be.

Unfortunately, uninstalling 1.3 didn't fix this. Nor has reinstalling RoboHelp.

[Peter Grainge]

I'm sorry but I have nothing else to suggest. Can I ask you to install RH6 to another machine to see if that also gives this warning? If it does and Adobe haven't put in an appearance here, I will contact them.

[Eumerin]

I've already done that - sort of.

The company replaced my computer with a brand new one just a few days after I originally received the RoboHelp program. Everything ran fine on that machine. I still got the "missing version 1.4" message, but I didn't think to actually make a note of the missing program at the time, and so I didn't go looking for it until I installed RoboHelp on the new machine.

However, I did not have the same error problems on that machine. No DEP errors, and no crashes to the desktop.

I spoke to Adobe on the phone yesterday, as well, and their advice was to do a complete uninstall (using the guidelines on the website) and reinstall of RoboHelp, but that doesn't appear to have worked.


In summary, my problem list -

During RoboHelp 6 install, a message pops up indicating that HTMLHelp 1.4 will need to be downloaded in order to compile. This occurred on both machines.

On the new machine, I attempted to download and install HTMLHelp 1.4, and got 1.3 instead which I went ahead and installed. There appears to already be a later version hidden somewhere in the depths of the hard drive. When I tried to run the tutorial afterwards, I got a machine indicating a DEP error from "HTML Help Executeable", and crashed to the desktop.

I have a sneaking suspicion at this point that the HTML Help install ended up conflicting with the version already on the system, and somehow a pointer got redirected and hasn't been reset.

[Peter Grainge]

Just running back I asked about whose login was used to install RH and whether that had admin rights? You replied you have admin rights but that isn't quite the same thing. It is important that login was used for installation, rather than an IT persons. I don't think that is the issue here but want to be 100% sure.

Next question is about the new machine. Is it by any chance running Vista? Whatever system is used, how do IT set it up? From the various CDs or by some ohter means? Do you have a PC at home that you could use the CD on just to try it?

[Eumerin]

RoboHelp was installed under my own personal log-in. I performed the install myself.

The machine is running Windows XP. I believe it's the pre-install provided by the manufacturer (Dell, in this case).

While I have a computer at home, I suspect that the company would greatly prefer that I exhaust Adobe's phone support first (I'm currently waiting to hear back from them after sending a screenshot of the DEP error message).

[Peter Grainge]

Interesting, I just bought a Dell laptop and I know another Adobe Community Expert has done the same but neither of us had this problem when installing RH6. The only difference is in both cases we had X5 on first.

Probably the best thing is to wait for Adobe first. BTW, I am not suggesting you do anything illegal or outside company policy. If the company is happy, you are allowed to install RH on a second PC provided both are for the same person and not in simultaneous use.

Is your office PC now too far set up to consider a reinstall to get it back to its delivered status? Just a thought.

[Peter Grainge]

Also, has anything other than basics such as Microsoft Office been installed?

Was your virus checker disabled at the time RH was installed? Adobe make the point, like many others, that typically they won't cause a problem but it is possible.

[Eumerin]

Adobe phone support eventually chose to blame the problems on Microsoft.

Eventually, the IT guys here at my company went ahead and reset my computer system. The Tutorial now starts properly, although I haven't worked my way completely through it. I still saw a message about not having HTML Help 1.4 when I installed RoboHelp, but I figure I'll wait until the program fails to accomplish something (presumeably compile since that's what the message indicated HTML Help 1.4 was for) before I start looking for the supposedly missing software.

[Peter Grainge]

I wouldn't like to blame anyone here. Yours is the only report of this issue so it does seem odd that no one else has hit it with the same build you are installing. I have a Dell machine too so I wouldn't want to blame them. It's easy to blame Microsoft but you have to admit their 1.4 link is downloading a 1.3 file.

Let's hope it all goes smoothly from hereon.

[Chip_Gandy]

I'll jump in on this one and share that I'm seeing the same thing. It's not a rights issue, not an AV issue.

I'm on Windows XP SP2, pretty much fresh out of the box. I have done this on a machine with Office 03 and without with the same results. Most of my testing is done on virtual machines but I get the same message on our standard XP SP2 image.

[Peter Grainge]

Rather than installing on a machine which has been built using an image, are you able to install to a machine built by using CDs? As RH can be installed on a second PC, could you install it on your home PC? (Deactivate it afterwards)

Being outside your corporate environment would give us a clue as to whether or not that is part of the issue.