WinHelp to be Deprecated

Quote form Microsoft website about Vista:

"...WinHelp and HTML Help (.chm) files support: Windows Vista introduces a new help model called Windows Help. All applications need to update their help documentation to the new model for Windows Vista versions. Older formats will continue to be supported for legacy applications through a downloadable WinHelp? component, which will not be in Windows Vista by default."

So its official. WinHelp is to be deprecated.

Note that even though WinHelp and HTML Help are mentioned in the same sentense (above) it is only WinHelp which is being Deprecated. HTML Help is safe for now and hey its all we have anyway. MS are removing all there .HLP files from Vista Install or migrating them to CHM or AP Help.

Sad to say goodbye to faithful old WinHelp but I can imagine 16 year old C code is probably looking pretty bad and non-maintainable. Just not up to the higher standards required by Vista.

So here's the post:

15-Mar-2006 - MS Announce WinHelp to be deprecated

During discussions with MVPs, Microsoft Help team announced today that WinHelp would be deprecated (phased out).

Ted Dworkin (Director of Windows Support Experience) told MVPs - "WinHelp does not meet the code standards established for Vista. These standards include security, reliability, and performance. WinHelp is architected in such a way that we would have to rewrite it from the ground up to meet the Vista code standards. And that approach doesn't make sense given that we have two other Help systems in Vista."

What does this mean? What should we do?

• It means WinHelp will eventually go away.
• ISVs (Independant Software Vendors) should stop promoting WinHelp as a viable help system.
• Authors should start moving over to HTML Help 1.x if they haven't done so already.

When will deprecation begin?

• The WinHelp engine will not ship on the Windows Vista Install disk.
• To assist customers MS will allow Vista users to download and install the "WinHelp" engine. Operating systems following Vista probably wont run WinHelp.

So WinHelp will run under Vista but not ship with Vista?

• Correct. WinHelp32 will be a download for Windows Vista to assist customers in the transition.

So don't invest any more time and money in WinHelp. Its days a numbered. HTML Help is all we have now.

AP Help 1.0 will be released with Vista late 2006 but will only be available to MS and OEMs. AP Help 2.0 is slated to come out about a year later (fingers crossed) and will be for everyone to use. AP Help V2 is slated to install on Windows XP and later.