Offline Help files not accessible in Windows 7 Ultimate

Your help file is corrupted it seems. And unless you repair or replace the installation, there is going to be more errors.

There are many ways you can fix this. Here are two ways you can repair the help file.

1. Repair Windows
2. Reinstall Win32 Help application.

Repairing Windows may not always be a good idea considering it may not patch the Help file. In such case you have to just replace or reinstall the Win32 help file application. The problem with repairing is that it usually replaces most of the boot and the display driver and window management issues. The help documentation being extension or integrated component, it may not solve the issue. So you may need some online patch or the KB installer for such issue.

You can download the WinHlp32.exe from the following location: https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=91

or use this URL: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=258aa5ec-e3d9-4228-8844-008e02b32a2c

Make sure you run this installer and check if this fixes your help file issue. Do read the instructions if the installation is on the 64 bit Windows 7 installed on your system.

Do also check this Microsoft Windows KB article for more information on win32hlp. See this URL: https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/kb/917607

Reinstalling the Win32hlp app should fix this problem.

Thanks for that info. As an afterthought, I made the registry key changes in safe mode. Once I booted in the normal mode, the issue was resolved. Both online and offline help files now work as they are supposed to be.

Here is what I did if this is going to help anyone with the issue -


First of all boot into the Safe mode.
1. Enter regedit from search box.

2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER

3. Go to SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Assistance ->Client -> 1.0 -> settings

4. Now on the right pane, locate MergeRequested.

5. Click on it and change the data value from 0 to 1.

6. Exit Registry Editor.

Now, reboot your PC/laptop and check if works.

I hope this post (and poster) are still current.
I made the change to the MergeRequested registry value. The good news is that the next time I clicked on Windows Help and Support a popup window said something like "obtaining help files" and then I was able to access the offline and online help. The bad news is that after closing Help, the next time I opened it, I was back to the:
__elbasuer__
error and the registry setting for MergeRequested had been reset to 0. I can get help back by going into registry editor and changing the 0 to 1, but it only works once. There are other places in the registry that contain the same Microsoft -> Assistance ->Client -> 1.0 -> settings and I modified them too, but the fix only works the first time Help is opened.
Do you have any ideas on how to make this fix permanent?

@Thomas, do the changes in Safe Mode for them to persist.

I should have mentioned that I changed the initial registry setting (below) in Safe mode. When I changed the other settings, I did NOT do it in Safe mode. Are you saying that I need to change all 4 occurrences of the MergeRequested setting in Safe Mode for it to persist?
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER

3. Go to SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Assistance ->Client -> 1.0 -> settings

4. Now on the right pane, locate MergeRequested.

The issue was actually posted by me and was sorted out by the method I indicated in one of my responses. I changed it in only one instance.
Now that you have reported multiple instances of those strings, it may be a good idea to check changing those instances in safe mode itself.

I went back in Safe Mode and changed the setting (if it wasn't already set to 1) in the original key and the following additional Keys:
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-19\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Assistance \Client\1.0\settings
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-20\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Assistance \Client\1.0\settings
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-4036650659-26847115-1726616706-1001\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Assistance \Client\1.0\settings

However, after assuring that it was set to 1 in all of these keys in Safe Mode and then rebooting, Help only worked the first time. After that the original problem came back. When I lookin the registry, the MERGEREQUESTED key had been reset to 0 in at least a couple of the keys, including the main key.

The only other remarks I can make are:
1) I'm wondering if any of the other keys under Settings might be different on my system. One that caught my eye was FirstTimeHelppaneStartup, which is set to 0
2) I neglected to mention that I am running Windows 7 Home Premium instead of Ultimate, in case that's relevant.

My current situation is better than when I started, because I can now change the registry and start help once during each Windows session. I just have to leave it open until I reboot, when I have to change the registry again. It would be better if we could figure out what is changing the key from 1 to 0.