How to get Microsoft HTML Help 2 Compiler?

Question

Where can I download the Microsoft HTML Help 2 compiler (or bounding SDK)? I want to generate HTML 2 documentation from my programming projects using Sandcastle Help File Builder and the Sandcastle Guided Installation wizard is instructing me to download that component.

Excerpt about HTML 2 taken from Sandcastle main page:

The HTML Help 2.x output includes a valid set of collection files and an H2Reg.exe configuration file to simplify deployment and integration of the help file into existing collections such as those used by Visual Studio.

Woodbine

Answer 1

The HTML Help 2 compiler is available from Microsoft in the Visual Studio 2008 SDK 1.0 download.
(You shouldn't need to have Visual Studio 2008 IDE installed to have these SDK tools.)

Apparently the file needed is hxcomp.exe

After installation of the SDK (on x64 system) the needed file was installed here and the Sandcastle Wizard found it.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\Help 2.0 Compiler\hxcomp.exe

On an x86 system it would be found under the regular Program Files folder name.

---

Addendum Notes: About tracking down the answer, etc:

According to a CodePlex Sandcastle Help File Builder forum post:

So I checked my installation, and it appears that I don't have HXCOMP.EXE installed on my machine anywhere. According to this article, it's only in version 1.0 of the VS 2008 SDK. I have Visual Studio 2008 installed.
-- http://shfb.codeplex.com/discussions/212256

The article referenced in the above post mentions:

Where can I download HxComp.exe?

• VS 2010 doesn't use MS Help2 format so there is no Help2 compiler available for it. Starting with VS 2010, the new MS Help Viewer format is used

• For VS 2008 hxcomp.exe is a part of VS 2008 SDK version 1.0. Note, the latest version VS 2008 SDK doesn't contain hxcomp.exe, so you need to install version 1.0! It is probably possible to install version 1.0 and then the latest version over it.

• For VS 2005 hxcomp.exe is a part of VS 2005 SDK.

• For VS .NET 2003 hxcomp.exe is a part of VSHIK 2003.

• For VS .NET 2002 hxcomp.exe is a part of VSHIK 2002 (Visual Studio Help Integration Kit v2.1).

-- Excerpted from http://www.helixoft.com/vsdocman-faqs/where-can-i-download-hxcompexe.html

Although I found the solution by installing the recommended VS 2008 SDK 1.0, you might use one of the alternate sources listed in the points.

Woodbine

Just to clear that out: In my case the VS 2008 SDK complained about the absence of VS 2008 IDE on my machine. But there is a trick: Download the SDK, go inside it using a tool like 7Zip and opy out cssdk.msi and vssdk.cab into for example the desktop. Then run the msi directly. This will skip the prereq-check. – Floppy

7-zip wouldn't extract those files for me, but while the exe was running, they were available in a hashed folder directly under C:\ where I was able to copy them to the side and skip the pre-req check. Note however then I ran into an issue with a requirement on MSHelp 2.0 being installed. This page has more details on: helpware.net/mshelp2/h20.htm – Stempien