HLP (WinHelp)

File Format
Name	HLP (WinHelp)
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Help files HLP (WinHelp)
Extension(s)	.hlp
PRONOM	fmt/474

"HLP" redirects here. For other HLP formats, see Category:File formats with extension .hlp, or Help files.

WinHelp is a help file format based on RTF created by Microsoft that exists in several versions and was used in Windows 3.0 up to Windows 95 and NT. Starting with Windows Vista, the format can not be opened without additional software downloads. The format was abandoned to encourage use of the newer CHM (compiled HTML) help format.

See also

• CHM
• Multimedia Viewer Book (MVB)
• Segmented Hypergraphics

Specifications

• helpdeco → helpfile.txt has information based on reverse-engineering.
  • Windows Help File Format ...
• A detailed description of the WinHelp file format

Software

• helpdeco - Decompiler for WinHelp files
• Wine - Includes a WinHelp viewer, with source code
• QWinHelp (untested)
• Microsoft's WinHlp32.exe for Windows 7

Sample files

• HLP files may be found in collections of old Windows software; e.g. [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]
• https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/document/CANASTA.HLP

Resources

• Wikipedia article
• Resource page for Windows help formats
• Subpage on the site linked above with a list of links to software and information about the WinHelp format