Symptoms

If you try to display the Help file from Metafile Companion (or any other Windows program that uses uses the WinHlp32 engine), an error message (“Failed to launch help.”) appears and the help is not displayed.

Cause

The Microsoft Vista team thought it would be a “good idea” to retire the WinHlp32 engine. For more details, see Microsoft Support article Error opening Help in Windows-based programs: “Feature not included” or “Help not supported”.

Solution

Metafile Companion v1.3 or later uses the newer HTML Help to avoid this problem. Users of previous versions can install the latest version to avoid this problem.

Work-around(s)

Fortunately, Microsoft quickly discovered the error in its ways and provides an update for Windows Vista: Windows Help program (WinHlp32.exe) for Windows Vista.  Installing this update solves the help problem.