The Portable Freeware Collection Forums

I am looking for a portable reader for help files. (.hlp)

I would like any suggestions, but I would prefer applications listed on TPFC.

I am specifically looking to open .hlp files without compiling them.

Thanks for any help.

I've just copied "winhlp32.exe" from my old XP to my new win7.

Another way to do it is to use UniversalExtractor to decompile the .hlp file and then directly open the resulting .rtf file.

Windows Help program (WinHlp32.exe) for Windows 7 @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/d ... laylang=en

Windows Help program (WinHlp32.exe) for Windows Vista @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/d ... laylang=en

Real Quick:
i would LOVE to find a REALLY good converter that would change .chm into html or PDF or something,
i tried an ebook converter and that didnt turn out too well, -_-

@Firewrath: chm to html? Just use 7-zip.
html to chm? Just use htm2chm.

Sorry for bouncing a very old thread but I'd appreciate some technical advice.
Just like the OP, I wanted a reader for .hlp files.
Baas's advice was correct and is the recommended approach but it is not portable.
The fix may not exist on every PC encountered.
joby_toss's suggestion of using the XP exe solves the problem at one level. I can read every hlp file and even associated it with the extension. But it is still not the answer. If I invoke the hlp from within the main program I still get the message "Why can't I get Help from this program? etc"
On a similar tack I had the idea of converting the hlp to chm.
To test the approach I looked into a test program containing a hlp file and, via a hex editor, found just one instance of HELPNAME.HLP. I changed the extension to CHM and included a dummy chm file. Ran the program but still got the "Why..." message. I guess I'm being obtuse but has anyone got any ideas? What other hack should I be looking for?
Or should I just give up!

In testing, neither Word 2013, LibreOffice 5, nor kchmviewer can't see .HLP files. Just looking at it with Notepad++, it looks similar to an RTF file with some weird formatting junk. *shrugs*