"Cannot Open the File: Mk:@MSITStore:C:\Windows\Help\Windows.chm" Error Message Appears When Opening Help (312456)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
  • Microsoft Windows 98
This article was previously published under Q312456

SYMPTOMS

When you click Start and then click Help, you may receive the following error message:
Cannot Open the File: mk:@MSITStore:C:\Windows\Help\Windows.chm
Note You may receive an error message when you try to open any Help file that has a .chm file extension.

CAUSE

This problem may occur if the Hhctrl.ocx file is the wrong version.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, extract and register a new copy of the Hhctrl.ocx file.
  1. Determine the version of Hhctrl.ocx. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Folder Options.
    2. Click the View tab, click Show all files, click to clear the Hide file extensions for known file types check box, and then click OK.
    3. Click Start, point to Find, and then click Files or Folders.
    4. In the Named box, type hhctrl.ocx. In the Look in list, click My Computer, and then click Find Now.
    5. In the list of items that are found, right-click the Hhctrl.ocx file that is stored in the C:\Windows\System folder, and then click Properties.
    6. Click the Version tab, and then note the number that is displayed next to File version.

      The version of Hhctrl.ocx that is included with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or Internet Explorer 5.01 is file version 4.73.8412.
  2. Extract a new copy of the Hhctrl.ocx file for the version of Internet Explorer that you have to the Windows\System directory. (To determine the version of Internet Explorer that you have, start Internet Explorer, and then click About Internet Explorer on the Help menu.)

    If Internet Explorer 5 is installed, extract a new copy of Hhctrl.ocx from your Windows 98 CD-ROM.

    If a different version of Internet Explorer is installed, extract a new copy of Hhctrl.ocx from the Hhupd.cab file on the Internet Explorer CD, or install the latest update for Windows HTML Help. For more information about how to install the latest update for Windows HTML Help, see the "More Information" section.

    For additional information about extracting files in Windows 98, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

    129605 How to extract original compressed Windows files

  3. Register the Hhctrl.ocx file. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. Quit all programs that are running.
    2. Click Start, and then click Run.
    3. In the Open box, type regsvr c:\windows\system\hhctrl.ocx, and then click OK. The following message appears:

      DllRegisterServer in c:\windows\system\hhctrl.ocx succeeded.

    4. Click OK, and then restart the computer.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about error messages that are related to Windows Help, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

259449 Error Message: Cannot open the file: %system root%\Help\Windows.chm

252612 Windows Help does not open from the Start menu

To obtain the latest update for Windows HTML Help, visit the following Microsoft Web page:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/htmlhelp/html/hwMicrosoftHTMLHelpDownloads.asp

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:12/20/2004
Keywords:kberrmsg kbprb ocsso KB312456
©2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.