Help on a Dell

Bought a new PC, a Dell with WinXP. On Windows Explorer, when I click the Help button on the Menubar, I get Dell's Help and Support Center. How can I get MS's own Help support?
Jim
P.S. No problem with IE's Help (Contents and Index). That gets MS.

 

Hi again Jim...

Try this link => http://home.earthlink.net/~lreynol929/ruXP/StrtMenu/FIXINGXP.HTM

 

Have a look in your add>remove programs applet. I think you can remove it there. Whether or not it will set things back to the default I can't say for sure. I removed it on my daughters laptop but must confess that I never tried the help after that. I wasn't even aware it replaced the windows help. I only removed it because she wanted all the Dell junk to disappear. She's never complained to me about her help not working though. You can give it a try or wait and see if anybody else knows.

 

I think a potential downside to that (eliminate Dell Help Site) is that its tied back to your specific machine for product annoucements, recalls and etc. - its a .net based app.

One woman's laptop that I fixed had this disabled and she missed a product recall on her faulty motherboard (Inspiron 2650 Notebooks manufactured in November and December of 2002 recalled for defective motherboards ... 20,000+ of em') and they wouldn't honor her warranty because she didn't respond to their notice within the alloted time period. In their defense, I think she only had a one year warranty.

Read up before you make a move to disable or uninstall it.

 

dobhar--Thanks for the link. I went through it but so far no luck. I still get Dell's Help and Support. On the other hand, I was not asked for the Dell WinXP CD. I had all the missing files on the hard drive. Will play around some more.
Zander--I am Chicken to remove Dell's Support on Add/Remove. Being selfish, I would like both it and MS' Help. Could you ask her what she gets when she clicks Help on the Windows Explorer.
Maybe I am just stirring up an issue that does not exist? Maybe the Dell Help and Support is a shell over MS Windows Explorer Help? I have not figured out how to test that.
Thanks to you both.

 

I'm ahead of you on this one (sort of). I took her out for a bite to eat tonight and thought about this so I asked her whether or not her help works. She said she didn't know. Claims she's never used it. She's going to college about 120 miles from here and didn't bring the computer home with her so I wasn't able to take a look at it. She's going back tomorrrow but has to come home again in a few days so I'll have her either try it or else she can bring it home with her (it's a laptop) so I can take a look at it. That's the best I can do for now.

In light of Rockster2U's post it might be best to hold off on getting rid of it. Maybe a way can be found to get the help feature to work the way you want it to without getting rid of the Dell thing.

I was kind of thinking the same thing. Is there a way to access windows help from within Dell Help and Support? Is there a shortcut for the Dell help in the start menu? Seems to me there was on hers but I'm not sure. It's been a while.

 

There's an explanation of how all the Dell stuff gets into the MS Help and Support on this page.

Apparently, it's integrated into the basic Microsoft H&S.

No information there on how to remove it or whether it's removable at all but knowing how it's done might help somebody figure out how it's un-done.

 

Welshjim,

One way to get M$ XP help is: in windows explorer, go to c:\windows\help\ and run windows.chm, or make a shortcut on the desktop to run it. I set folders to classic appearance and use the index function which I find more useful than the XP appearance.

 

Thanks to all.
Miz explains why I see what I see. Sparrow has got it right on how to get the MS Windows Help.
Zander--no, I am not paying for these lunches.