How to: Install Help for Visual Studio

If you did not install Help when you installed Visual Studio, then the MSDN Library may not be installed. The MSDN Library contains the Help documentation for Visual Studio products. 

To use F1 Help, search, and view topics, you must either install Help on your computer or connect to Online Help on the Internet. For more information, see Help Sources: Local Help and Online Help.

Note

The Help that is included in Express Editions is a subset of the MSDN Library. However, you can download the full library by completing the procedure in this topic.

To install Help for Visual Studio Professional Edition or Visual Studio Tools For Office

  1. Insert the CD or DVD that you installed Visual Studio from, or browse to the network share that you installed from.

  2. Double-click Setup.exe.

  3. In the wizard, click Install Product Documentation.

To install Help for Visual Studio Standard Edition

  • Do one of the following:

    • Insert MSDN Library Disc 1 and then double-click Setup.exe.

    • Browse to the network share that you installed from and then double-click Setup.exe in the \MSDN\ folder.

    • On the MSDN Express Library page, click the link to download "MSDN Express Library for Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions and Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition."

To install Help for Express Editions

  • On the MSDN Express Library page, click the link to download "MSDN Express Library for Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions and Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition."

To download and install the full MSDN Library

  • On the MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008 page of the Microsoft Download Center Web site, follow the instructions for downloading and handling the .iso file, which contains the full library.

See Also

Other Resources

Help on Help (Microsoft Document Explorer Help)

Change History

Date

History

Reason

July 2008

Added a section about how to download the full MSDN Library.

Content bug fix.

July 2008

Updated instructions for installing MSDN Express Library.

Content bug fix.