WinHelp
WinHelp was an early form of online help for software. IT runs under Microsoft Windows operating systems. These days, it would never be used in a new help project, but some legacy systems still use it.
WinHelp can include graphics and multimedia (sounds, videos), hyperlinks and popups, so at the topic-level, there are no fundamental disadvantages compared to the more modern help formats. The big limitation is with navigation, which is extremely difficult to use (you cannot easily view both the contents list and the content at the same time). The current Microsoft help format (CHM) overcomes this major limitation.
Microsoft Vista and WinHelp
According to Microsoft Knowledge Base article 917607 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607), partial support for WinHelp is available in Vista. WinHelp has two formats:
- 16-bit .HLP files. Read using the WinHelp.exe program, which is supplied with Microsoft Vista.
- 32-bit .HLP files. Read using the WinHlp32.exe program, which is not supplied with Microsoft Vista.
Although 32-bit WinHelp files can be viewed in Windows Vista by downloading and installing WinHlp32.exe, Microsoft recommends that software developers change the online help to an alternative help file format, such as CHM, HTML, or XML. For more information, see 'Help Engine Support' in 'The Windows Vista Developer Story: Application Compatibility Cookbook' on the MSDN web site (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480152.aspx#appcomp_topic29a).
See also 
Comparison of online help formats
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