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#400
Windows Mail Help file mail.h1s
Hi Greg S, If there is a downloadable CHM version of the Compiled Microsoft Help file mail.h1s (e.g. Office 2010 Beta Resource Kit Technical Library (Office2010BetaResKit 2.chm) in Compiled Help format [http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=e6dcc787-4653-49da-aeef-564a64dd4ac5]), then after it was downloaded, a simple shortcut to desktop would solve the problem. Alas, I could not find a CHM version of mail.h1s. Had Windows Mail been offered as an "upgrade" option to Windows XP users, there may have been hope.
As you so ingeniously discovered re: using all Vista Windows Mail files vs. using all Win7 Windows Mail files except the Win7 msoe.dll, the ideal would be to use the Win7 mail.h1s file. In addition to the Vista mail.h1s being a foreign help file, it may not have the same links within all of Win7 help as Win7 mail.h1s.
The question is, whether Win7 mail.h1s was disabled itself? (in which case Vista mail.h1s may be the only option), or if it was just disabled through the registry and/or a help file permissions problem.
A security vector resulting from the ability to add help files has been exploited by malware, so Windows uses Microsoft Help Validator Files along with C:\Windows\helppane.exe (Microsoft Help and Support) to minimize that security vector. Win7 mail.h1s may require permissions to be reinstated, for which: takeown & icalcs (Take Ownership.reg) or SubInACL may be required in order for a user to be granted the permission, to grant the permissions for Win7 mail.h1s. I found these files on Win7 Ult.x64:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Assistance\Client\1.0\en-US\Help_CValidator.H1D
[Microsoft Help Validator File (.H1D); Attributes: HSAI ]
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Assistance\Client\1.0\en-US\Help_MValidator.Lck
[LCK File (.Lck); Attributes: HSAI ]
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Assistance\Client\1.0\en-US\Help_MValidator.H1D
[Microsoft Help Validator File (.H1D); Attributes: HSAI ]
One person having a somewhat related problem, tracked down the first two files on Vista [http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vi...-problem.html] by using a Process Monitorfilter to isolate helppane.exe, and then changed the permissions on the two files to allow user access.
If you have Process Monitor, you should be able to track the real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity using non-destructive filters; and determine where attempting to use mail.h1s fails and the root cause of why. The latest version of Process Monitor v2.8 (Nov 3, 2009), can be downloaded here [http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx]. As a side note, the latest version of Process Explorer v12.01 (April 1, 2010), can be downloaded here []Content not found. An interesting comparison may be to use a Process Monitorfilter to isolate WinMail.exe when clicking Windows Mail help on Vista vs. Windows Mail help on Win7.
It seems that the decision to not use Windows Calendar in Win7 was made early on, while the decision to not have Windows Mail as an option, was more of a "last minute" one, if the Local Group Policy Editor (GPedit.ms) is any indication in: Computer Configuration\
Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Calendar => Supported on: Windows Vista only
Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Mail => Supported on: At least Windows Vista
Likewise in: User Configuration\
Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Calendar=> Supported on: Windows Vista only
Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Mail => Supported on: At least Windows Vista
There may be hope that the Win7 mail.h1s file was fully linked within all of Win7 help; and all that is required is Registry key changes and/or the granting of help file permissions. Maybe you can compare the Windows Mail help Registry files on Vista vs. Win7. Registry files I found (may be others) related to C:\Windows\Help\Windows\en-US\mail.h1s [H1S File (.h1s); Attributes: A] on Win7 Ult.x64:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.h1s\OpenWithList
(Default) REG_SZ (value not set)
a REG_SZ (WinMail.exe)
MRUList REG_SZ (a)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.h1s\OpenWithProgids
(Default) REG_SZ (value not set)
h1sfile REG_NON (zero length binary value)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.h1s\UserChoice
(Default) REG_SZ (value not set)
Progid REG_SZ (Applications\WinMail.exe)
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.H1S
(Default) REG_SZ h1sfile
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\.H1S
(Default) REG_SZ h1sfile
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\h1sfile
(Default) REG_SZ Compiled Windows Help file
FriendlyTypeName REG_EXPAND_SZ %SystemRoot%\System32\apds.dll,-152
NoOpen REG_SZ
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\h1sfile\DefaultIcon
(Default) REG_EXPAND_SZ %SystemRoot%\System32\apds.dll,-210
I'm not asking you to do anything, only if you still wanted to get the Windows Mail help file (mail.h1s) to work, then perhaps the above may be of some help.
Best regards, 2CR LZW
P.S. I would have provided the Registry files C:\Windows\Help\Windows\en-US\mail.h1s on Vista Ult.x64 except I had a motherboard failure on my M6300 and Dell replaced it for free with the M6400 w/Win7 Ult.x64. It was then, I was stunned to learn, that the "security" permission features of UAC denied me access to my own data! Even after using takeown & icalcs, It was still access denied. So I had to swap out the new Win7 Ult.x64 hard drive and replace it with the old M6300 Vista Ult.x64 drive in the M6400. I then used Notepad to copy the data to an external drive connected to the M6400, thereby bypassing the OS UAC altogether. After I figure out the size and placement of about a dozen partitions for the 2 new internal drives, I will use Hard Disk Manager 2010 Pro by Paragon to do a P2P Adjust bare-metal system deployment, to make sure I have all of the data, and to export the Vista software settings etc. I'm not sure if by doing so, the date time-stamps of folders and files will be reset, so before I do I will run SubInACL, and then use Robocopy to not only get a log to insure everything was copied, but also to maintain the data date time-stamps. Long story short, it will be awhile before I have a Vista VM onboard.