Question

In our application, when you go to “Menu > Help…”, it opens our help files in Internet Explorer, which is the desirable effect. However, we have the shortcut key “F1” set to open the help files as well. It still opens the help in Internet Explorer… but it also opens them up at the same time in the user’s default web browser!

Here is the code in the event method that opens the web browser:

Private Sub menuHelpHelp_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles menuHelpHelp.Click

      Dim temp As String = String.Format("{0}\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe", Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles))
      Dim temp2 As String = String.Format("{0}", Globals.HelpFilePath)
      If Not System.IO.File.Exists(temp2) 
         MessageBox.Show(String.Format("Could not find index.html, run ""help_zip.exe"" inside the Doc folder as an Administrator to restore the help system (make sure to overwrite all files when asked!)"))
      Else
         System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(temp, temp2)
      End If
   End Sub

If I step through the code after clicking the Help menu item, IE opens as intended when I hit the “System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(temp, temp2)” line. However, when I do the same thing after pressing F1, it opens first in the user’s default browser, and then in IE second. Any ideas? The code in this part of the application is written in VB.NET, and the application is a .NET 3.5 app.

Answer 1

Out of curiosity, have you tried binding the action to another button to see if the problem still exists? Switch it from F1 to F2, see if it still happens. Almost certainly will, unless there’s some code in your program which you forgot about that’s causing problems.

EDIT
You appear to be setting a global variable for your help path.. which means the default F1 Help would likely load the correct file. So I’d go with the “F1 is still bound to the default Help action.” You’ll need to unbind it.