Help Content Manager overrides
Applies to: Visual Studio Visual Studio for Mac
Note
This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here
You can change the default behavior of Help Viewer and help-related features in the Visual Studio IDE. Some options are specified by creating a .pkgdef file to set various registry key values. Others are set directly in the registry.
How to control Help Viewer behavior by using a .pkgdef file
Create a .pkgdef file with the first line as
[$RootKey$\Help]
.Add any or all of the registry key values described in the table below on separate lines, for example
"UseOnlineHelp"=dword:00000001
.Copy the file to %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\<edition>\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions.
Run
devenv /updateconfiguration
in a developer command prompt.
Registry key values
Registry key value | Type | Data | Description |
---|---|---|---|
NewContentAndUpdateService | string | <http URL for service endpoint> | Define a unique service endpoint |
UseOnlineHelp | dword | 0 to specify local Help, 1 to specify online Help |
Define online or offline Help default |
OnlineBaseUrl | string | <http URL for service endpoint> | Define a unique F1 endpoint |
OnlineHelpPreferenceDisabled | dword | 0 to enable or 1 to disable online Help preference option |
Disable online Help preference option |
DisableManageContent | dword | 0 to enable or 1 to disable the Manage Content tab in Help Viewer |
Disable the Manage Content tab |
DisableFirstRunHelpSelection | dword | 0 to enable or 1 to disable help features that are configured the first time that Visual Studio starts |
Disable installation of content at first launch of Visual Studio |
Example .pkgdef file contents
[$RootKey$\Help]
"NewContentAndUpdateService"="https://some.service.endpoint"
"UseOnlineHelp"=dword:00000001
"OnlineBaseUrl"="https://some.service.endpoint"
"OnlineHelpPreferenceDisabled"=dword:00000000
"DisableManageContent"=dword:00000000
"DisableFirstRunHelpSelection"=dword:00000001
Use Registry Editor to change Help Viewer behavior
The following two behaviors can be controlled by setting registry key values in the Registry Editor.
Task | Registry Key | Value | Data |
---|---|---|---|
Override BITS job priority | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node (on a 64-bit machine)\Microsoft\Help\v2.3 | BITSPriority | foreground, high, normal, or low |
Point to local content store on network share | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Help\ v2.3\Catalogs\VisualStudio15 | LocationPath | "ContentStoreNetworkShare" |