How can I change my Visual Studio 2010 Help (F1) from local to online?

Question

The first time I pressed F1 in Visual Studio 2010, I mistakenly chose to use local help files (which I don't have) rather than online.

Now, whenever I press F1 in VS2010, The Microsoft Help Viewer 1.1 launches with nothing in it.

How do I change the F1 behaviour to online help?

Note: There appear to be Help settings in Tools > Options for VS2008 and VS2005, but none for VS2010?

Answer 1

The help settings are set in Visual Studio 2010's Help Manager:

• Help -> Manage Help Settings
• Choose Online or Local Help.

In Visual Studio 2012, you can find it in:

• Help -> Add and Remove Help Content
• Add or Remove content as you like. Update button on the bottom right.

Answer 2

I had this problem, if I click "OK" on the location it gave me it then sat and thought for a bit, then gave me the option to pick.

Options were:

choose online or local help
check for updates online
install content from online
install content from disk
remove content.

Answer 3

With VS2012 choose Help->Set Help Preference->Launch in Browser (or Launch in Help Viewer)