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Visual Studio Help Integration

Help Viewer

Help Viewer is an optional installation component of Visual Studio. To install it through Visual Studio Installer, follow these steps:

  1. Open Visual Studio Installer from the Start menu or, if you have Visual Studio open, you can choose Tools > Get Tools and Features to open Visual Studio Installer.

  2. Choose the Individual Components tab, then search for help viewer, or select Help Viewer under the Code tools section.

  3. Choose the Modify button to start the installation of Microsoft Help Viewer.

Visual Studio Help Viewer Install

Set Help Preferences

Displaying local help requires setting the desired option (display in the browser or the local Help Viewer).

Visual Studio Help Viewer Install

Eigene Hilfe hinzufügen

To integrate your own help topics (.msha) into the Visual Studio 2010 (2022) Help Viewer, please proceed as follows:

  • Open Visual Studio 2010 (2022)
  • Select Help > Add and Remove Help Content to start the Help Library Manager
  • Select the Manage Content tab
  • Under Installation Source, select Disk. The Disk option isn't available if your administrator has prevented you from modifying the content installation source.
  • Click the ... button to browse and navigate to the source directory containing the help file (.msha)
  • Select the file helpcontentsetup.msha for older versions of Visual Studio or the corresponding file your-help.msha for current versions and click the Open button
  • Back in the Help Library Manager, click the Next button.
  • In the following dialog, you will see all available help files and the new entry. Select the Add link in the Action column.
  • Now click the ‘Refresh’ button to integrate the help into the Help Viewer.
  • Confirm the queries in the ‘Security Warning’ dialog with ‘Yes’.

Close the Help Viewer window. You can now use your help by pressing F1 in Visual Studio.