Windows SBS

Help and Support Service not installed on Windows 2003 Server.

Posted on by Computer

When you try and use Remote support or access Help and support, you will get an error message saying that “Help and Support” service is not installed.

To Resolve this issue, do the following:

Go to the C:\Windows\pchealth\helpctr\binaries folder to verify if the
HelpSvc.exe file is missing.

If the file exists in the folder, I would like to recommend that you perform the following action plan.

  1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK to open a command prompt.
  2. Type net stop helpsvc and then press ENTER
  3. Type cd c:\windows\pchealth\helpctr where is the Windows folder, and then press ENTER.
  4. Type rd packagestore /s /q and then press ENTER.
  5. Type rd installedskus /s /q and then press ENTER.
  6. Type cd binaries and then press ENTER.
  7. Type start /w helpsvc /svchost netsvcs /regserver /install and then press ENTER.
  8. Type start /w helpsvc /register and then press ENTER.
  9. If any of the following processes are running, stop them: helpsvc.exe; helphost.exe; helpctr.exe
  10. To stop a process, right-click the taskbar, and then click Task Manager. Click the Processes tab, click the process you want to stop, and then click End Process.
  11. At the command prompt, type net start helpsvc and then press ENTER.
  12. The service will start successfully

If the file does not exist, please copy the \pchealth\helpctr folder from a known working SBS server and perform the above steps again.