Update: There was a bug in H3Viewer at the time I posted this that showed an empty TOC and Index on x64 versions of Windows. Rob Chandler just informed me the current build (1.0.0.20) fixes this and I have confirmed it now works fine on x64! Apparently in between Beta 2 and RC Microsoft may have changed the help agent from 32 bit to 64 bit which relocated some registry keys. H3Viewer is still a 32 bit application but works fine on 64 bit Windows.
I hate Visual Studio 2010’s new help system. Well hate isn’t really the right word. It’s more like loathing with every fiber of my being. There was a pretty good discussion going on in the comments of Brian Harry’s blog on MSDN. The bottom line is though, it’s here to stay.
Fortunately a Microsoft Help MVP named Robert Chandler has created H3Viewer which is an interface on top of the new help system that aims to bring back the familiar feel of dexplore, including a TOC, index, and bookmarks. It doesn’t change the fact that help is now served by a local web server but it’s a great improvement over the out of box experience. Sorry but IE/Chrome are not good help viewers.
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It’s VERY slow. At least it offers an index, though. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get around the fact that the VS 2010 help system has taken a step backwards in time at least 10 yrs. I will continue to use the VS2008 help system and may even continue to use VS2008 until there is something that I can only get done in VS2010. I have been using VS since before 4.0 and 2010 is the first version that immediately seems less friendly than the previous version.
2010-04-13 @ 9:14 pm
not counting the slow and “enable hardware acceleration, computer deceleration”
2010-06-07 @ 11:48 pm
I haven’t had any performance problems, but the I running a quad-core Xeon x64 wiht 12 gig of ram; booyah!
2010-07-19 @ 2:02 pm
Scott Gu, please help us man. Please. We are dying here! The new VS2010 help system is totally weak and is sucking up all of the productivity gains I am getting with new VS tooling and Resharper (not to mention the time I am spending searching the interweb for a solution to why my help “doesn’t seem to work right” — turns out it is working correctly but just sucks!).
2010-07-23 @ 2:59 pm
Cannot believe I have to Google for help now! Outrageous!!!!
2010-07-25 @ 9:50 am