Linking to Windows help system?

[Sebastien B.]

On the support page of my website I have instructions on how users can check
different settings of their browser (usually for IE users), however given
that MS has release so many versions of Windows, with each having a
different way of getting to the settings, I've got a large paragraph of "If
you have this then do this, else if you have this.....", which is too large,
probably not entirely correct since user-UI changes will affect ways to get
there, but I need to be able to point them to how to do it.

So I was wondering: is there a way to link to the windows help system from
HTML by doing a link like "help://topictosearchfor" or something similar?

[Neal]

On Tue, 07 Sep 2004 01:52:39 GMT, Sebastien B. <se*******@nospam.nospam>
wrote:

On the support page of my website I have instructions on how users can
check
different settings of their browser (usually for IE users), however given
that MS has release so many versions of Windows, with each having a
different way of getting to the settings, I've got a large paragraph of
"If
you have this then do this, else if you have this.....", which is too
large,
probably not entirely correct since user-UI changes will affect ways to
get
there, but I need to be able to point them to how to do it.

So I was wondering: is there a way to link to the windows help system
from
HTML by doing a link like "help://topictosearchfor" or something similar?

If it is possible, I've never heard of the method. But I don't think you
want to do that. Seems a bit uncomfortable to me when a website accesses
parts of my computer not associated with web browsing.

Rather, you could:

1) use a sniff to determine OS and supply a page tailored for that
environment based on that.
2) allow users to click a link for their OS to get detail on that specific
OS's needs.
3) offer search terms to use in the Help dialog (which is among the first
things a user ought to discover) to lead them to their OS's write-up.
4) link to MS's website where perhaps some or all of these are housed.

[Harlan Messinger]

"Sebastien B." <se*******@nospam.nospam> wrote in message
news:Hv************@news04.bloor.is.net.cable.roge rs.com...

On the support page of my website I have instructions on how users can check different settings of their browser (usually for IE users), however given
that MS has release so many versions of Windows, with each having a
different way of getting to the settings,

.... for which reason I'd predict that the Help is arranged differently for
every version as well, and would defy any efforts to create a
version-independent method of accessing information any particular
feature--assuming you *could* invoke Help through a web page at all. I could
be mistaken, but that's my suspicion.