Debugging Dynamic Help

I ran across an interesting debugging tip yesterday while working on a Help collection that integrates with Visual Studio .NET 2003. It may help you too.

If you want to see what keywords/values the IDE and your component are relaying to the Dynamic Help window, set* the following Registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\7.1\Dynamic Help\Display Debug Output in Retail

to YES.

When you cursor through code in VS.NET or select a component, look at the bottom area of the Dynamic Help window. You'll see the changing values.

*WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system, blah, blah, blah, you know the rest.

Ken
MVP [ASP.NET]
Toronto