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Visual Studio 2012 Help Viewer 2.0 crashes

  • Article

This article helps you resolve the Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Help Viewer crash problem.

Original product version:   Visual Studio Premium 2012
Original KB number:   2879007

Symptoms

When you launch Help within Visual Studio 2012 by pressing F1 or by choosing View Help (CTRL+F1) from the Help menu on the Standard Toolbar, you may meet an issue where one of the following messages will be displayed:

  • Error message 1

    CLR_EXCEPTION_System.IO.FileNotFoundException

  • Error message 2

    Windows cannot find HlpViewer.exe. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.

Cause

The Help Viewer 2.0 or one of its components is missing or damaged.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, you must close all instances of Visual Studio 2010, open the Program and Features applet from the Control Panel, select the installed instance of Visual Studio 2012, select Change, and continue with the Repair option.

Reset personal preferences

You may need to reset your personal preferences in the Tools > Options dialog as repairing an application overwrites those settings. It's suggested you preserve your settings before proceeding with the Repair. From the Main Menu, select Tools and then select Import and Export Settings.