What Does Running Helpctr.exe Do?

In the Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server operating systems, running Helpctr.exe starts a feature known as Microsoft Windows Help and Support Center. The Help and Support Center provides help on a variety of topics by displaying compiled help files, which have a CHM file extension. You can run the tool from the Start menu with different parameters that control how it opens.

Execution

In Windows XP or Windows 2003 Server, you can run Helpctr.exe by clicking “Start” and “Help and Support." Or type “helpctr” minus quotes at the Windows command prompt and press "Enter." In the latter case, if you don’t specifying any arguments, or parameters, Helpctr.exe displays the Help and Support Center homepage.

Content

The Help and Support Center homepage isn’t actually a website, but it looks like one and provides basic troubleshooting information, documentation and tips and tricks for keeping your Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 computer secure, up-to-date and performing to the best of its ability. If you’re connected to the Internet, Help and Support Center provides access to a huge database of frequently asked questions troubleshooting information, known as the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Parameters

If you run Helpctr from the Windows command prompt, or from a script, you can specify several parameters that control how the Help and Support Center starts and what it looks like and contains once it has started. The “/url [URL]” parameter tells the Help and Support Center to display the Web page specified by URL when it starts. The “/hidden” parameter starts the Help and Support Center without the user interface, which can be useful if you want to load a help topic using a script, while the “/fromstarthelp” parameter starts a new Help and Support Center session. If you need help with Helpctr parameters, type “helpctr /?” without quotes and at the Windows command prompt and press "Enter."

Issues

If you find that Help and Support Center is unavailable when you click “Start,” or Windows reports an error message related to “the service named ‘Help and Support,” you may be able to resolve the problem by downloading a so-called hotfix from the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Furthermore, IT security provider Qualys, Inc. issued a security alert regarding Help and Support Center in July 2010. A vulnerability in Help and Support Center allowed attackers to attract visitors to a specially designed website and execute malicious commands on their computers. Microsoft has since released a security update -- described by Qualys as “critical” for all supported versions of Windows XP -- which imposes tighter restrictions on the data that can and can’t be passed to Help and Support Center.

References

• MSDN: Application Compatibility: Help Engine Support
• Microsoft: Helpctr
• Qualys: Microsoft Security Bulletin: July 2010
• Microsoft Help and Support: "Help and Support" Feature Is Missing
• Windows XP in a Nutshell: David Aaron Karp, et al.