Knowledge Base

BUG: Help System Closes After Closing Printer Properties Window

Article ID: 194893

Article Last Modified on 9/27/2004

Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Learning Edition, when used with:
- Microsoft Windows 95
- Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Learning Edition, when used with:
- Microsoft Windows 95
- Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition, when used with:
- Microsoft Windows 95
- Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition, when used with:
- Microsoft Windows 95
- Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Enterprise Edition, when used with:
- Microsoft Windows 95
- Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition, when used with:
- Microsoft Windows 95
- Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 32-Bit Enterprise Edition, when used with:
- Microsoft Windows 95
- Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition

This article was previously published under Q194893

SYMPTOMS

While attempting to print a topic from the Visual Basic Help file, you access the Printer Properties dialog. The Help system closes unexpectedly when you close the Printer Properties window, and the topic is not printed. This problem occurs in the Visual Basic development environment or when using the ShowHelp method of the Common Dialog Control. This problem occurs only on Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me.

RESOLUTION

The workarounds for this problem are limited. Launching Help by using the WinHelp function from the Win32 API results in the same problem. It is possible to avoid this problem by starting WinHelp32.EXE and specifying a Help file using the Shell() function. However, there is no way to specify a Help Topic when using Shell().

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

Visual Basic 6.0 is listed in the "Applies to" section of this article. It is important to note that version 6.0 will exhibit this problem only when a Help file designed for the WinHelp system is opened; for example, when opening the Visual Basic 5.0 Help file in Visual Basic 6.0. Because Visual Basic 6.0 uses a different Help file system, this problem does not apply to Visual Basic 6.0 when using files created with the new HTML file format.

The following section uses the Menu selections available in Visual Basic 5.0. The menu options in Visual Basic 4.0 are slightly different, although the same problem does occur.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Start Visual Basic on a computer running Windows 95/98.
Click the Cancel button when the New Project window appears.
Select Microsoft Visual Basic Help Topics from the Help menu.
Click on any topic and then click the Display button on the Help Topics window.
With the Help topic displayed, choose Print Topic from the Options menu.
When the Print dialog displays, click on the Printer Properties button.
Close the Printer Properties window by clicking on OK or Cancel. The Help system shuts down at this point, and the topic is not printed.

Keywords: kbbug kbpending KB194893