Microsoft KB Archive/840921

= BUG: You receive a &quot;Help is not available&quot; message when you try to access the Help in Visual Studio .NET 2003 =

Article ID: 840921

Article Last Modified on 3/4/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Architect
 * Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Developer
 * Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Academic Edition

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SYMPTOMS
When you access Help in the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 IDE, you receive the following message:

Help is not available for Visual Studio .NET because MSDN Library, which provides Help for Visual Studio, is not installed.

When MSDN is not installed, Help is not available from the index, search, table of contents, F1, or Help buttons in the user interface.



CAUSE
This problem occurs if one of the following conditions is true:
 * A version of the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) that was released before February 2003 is installed.
 * The MSDN for Visual Studio 2003 has not been installed completely.
 * A version of the MSDN that was released in April 2003 or later has not been installed completely.



RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem, follow these steps:
 * 1) Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. Control Panel opens.
 * 2) In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs. The Add/Remove Programs dialog box appears. The Add/Remove Programs dialog box contains the list of programs that are installed in your computer.
 * 3) In the list of programs, click Microsoft Library for Visual Studio .NET 2003, and then click Remove to remove MSDN.
 * 4) Install MSDN for Visual Studio .NET 2003 or a version of MSDN that was released in February 2003 or later.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the &quot;Applies to&quot; section.



Steps to reproduce the behavior

 * 1) Install a version of MSDN that was released before February 2003.
 * 2) Install Visual Studio .NET 2003.
 * 3) Start Visual Studio .NET 2003.
 * 4) Perform any one of the following actions to access Help in the Visual Studio .NET 2003 IDE:
 * 5) * Press the F1 key.
 * 6) * On the Help menu, click Dynamic Help.
 * 7) * On the Help menu, click Contents.
 * 8) * On the Help menu, click Index.
 * 9) * On the Help menu, click Search.

