I see alot of people have the same problem as me, namely:
"Microsoft Document Explorer cannot be shown because the specified help collection 'ms-help://MS.MSDNQTR.v80.en' is invalid."
As far as I can see from all the threads, the only solution Microsoft suggests is uninstalling everything and start from scratch! Is this serious
I dont have time for such a solution! I have installed from my local disk where I have the DVD image extracted.
Has Microsoft found the reason why there is a problem doing it this way Or is there another way to fix this problem
I need a quicker solution than uninstalling/reinstalling everything!
Need a good solution for MSDN installation problems!
dgrigsby
This is generic error that can happen for variety of reasons that can be divided into 3 major categories
#1. Problems during extraction of DVD image. We've seen cases where WinRar or other tools cause damage of files during extraction. One indication of this is "garbage" in *.hxc files (there are about 20 of them) in C:\Program Files\MSDN subfolders (or corresponding folder on your machine where you installed MSDN). HxC files should contain valid XML. (Even if hxc files are valid it does not rule out this option completely). The best way to avoid this problem is to burn a DVD.
#2. Anti-virus software enabled during installation of MSDN can cause incorrect help registration. If this is the case, uninstall/reinstall of VS and MSDN in the only solution.
#3. General problems with MSHelp. If you have other MSDN libraries installed, or .NET Framework SDK installed, check if you can open them successfully. You can also try to open VS 2005 Documentation shortcut. If you see similar errors while accessing these shortcuts this is indication that MSHelp is broken. One possible workaround for this is rename "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Help" folder (Note: there is also "Help 8" folder - do not rename it!) and repair Microsoft Document Explorer 2005 (no need to repair MSDN). In my experience this helps in 50% of the cases. Sometimes it does not help. In this case you'll need to uninstall all programs that use MSHelp.
Please try some of those workarounds above and let me know if any of them helped you to resolve the issue. If you continue to experience problems, you can write to me directly at mariash@microsoft.com and I will send you additional troubleshooting tools.
Thank you
Maria Shneerson, MSDN