H2Reg for Diagnostics

H2Reg is an excellent tool for remote customer diagnostics. Firstly you can ask the customer to email you the log file (H2Reg_Log.txt). This contains lots of useful information.

If this provides no clues, the next step is to get a complete snapshot of the customers registration system. This will show up any collections that are partially registered or have collection files that are missing (MSI problems).

The H2Reg log file provides the following information:

• Windows version and language
• Version of IE Installed
• Version of MS Help 2.x runtime Installed
• Administration logon Yes/No
• If verbose logging is enabled (DumpNSToLog_before=1) - A detailed report on every Namespace, Title, Plug-in and Title found on the PC. Missing .HxC and .HxS files are marked as (** File Not Found **).

How to make a diagnostics kit

To capture a snapshot of the customers PC:

1. Take a copy of h2Reg.exe and h2Reg.ini
2. Add the following dummy line to h2Reg.ini so that H2Reg.exe will run...
3. [Reg_Namespace]
4. ;<nsName>|<nsColfile>|<nsDesc>
5. xx|xx.hxc|xx
6. Make sure h2Reg.ini has DumpNSToLog_before=1 for verbose logging (normally 0).
7. Create a file Test.bat file which contains
8. H2Reg.exe -r
9. Zip up the 3 files and send to customer.

Instructions for the customer:

1. Unzip the 3 files to an empty folder
2. Run Test.bat
3. Email back the log file H2Reg_Log.txt