Helpctr.exe application error

About Helpctr.exe Process

helpctr.exe (helpctr stands for Microsoft Help and Support Center) is a Windows NT/2000/XP generic process which is loaded in the background when you run Windows Help. When help is requested in Windows 2000 or later version of Windows this process will be initiated. This is a non-essential process which means disabling or enabling it is upon to user preference.

Note that The process helpctr.exe is not a virus or a worm or a Trojan horse or spyware, or adware.

Problem Symptoms:
- I am using Windows XP with service pack 2. when I start my computer the hard drive keep running and it take a lot of time to start windows.

- When I open the task manager by right clicking on the task bar or open the task manager using ctrl+alt+del it shows the helpctr.exe appear in many, many times. In fact all my task manager entry if filled with helpctr.exe process.

- The boxes Helpctr.exe keep coming on the screen. And the following box appeared
helpctr.exe application error-
the application failed to initialize properly(0x000012d) or ((oxc000017, or 0xc000012d142)) Click on OK to terminate the application.
Click on CANCEL to debug the program.

- After another box reads: Microsoft Visual C++ runtime library
runtime error!
Program :C:\Windows\PC HEALTH\ HELPCTR\Binaries\helpctr.exe
This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way. Please contact the applications support team for more information.

- If I want to remove those so many pop up message after clicking either close or ok or cross button one there is another box under it and in fact so many boxes there. If I move that box, there is another box under it. When I click all boxes ok button all pop ups are gone and the screen seems to be normal as well as all of the helpctr.exe entries in Task Manager are gone.

- After I clicked all the pop ups HelpCtr.exe the computer continues to work as usual but suddenly it started same problem frequently pop up window appears one after another. In fact it depends on the application. For example if I open google chrome browser I see lots of google help page appeared there. If I open firefox browser lots of tab containing firefox help page appeared. If I dont open any application frequently windows help and messaging centre window appears. If I push the X in the upper right corner of the help menu the help window closes but then reopens again by itself. if it doesn't reopen by itself it reopens when I click anywhere on the application.

Problem Investigation:
I used windows Search button and searched for helpctr.* and found helpctr.exe exists in about 5 locations. I changed the name to another name of each folder and rebooted. But the problem remained same.

I reinstall windows computer but still no help.

Installed anti virus but no help. Problem remained. I removed helpctr.exe but still same problem

I even deleted my help folder in windows. But still did not solve my problem. It rather looking for the help boxes to pop up (which dont exist anymore). So it will give me an error box about my helpctr.exe application not functioning, but the box will never close. It just keeps popping up over and over again.

I have even tried following steps based on some posts suggestion after searching google but still that did not solve the problem. What I did is to delete the help cache files in your user profile directory.

1. Start Windows Explorer

2. The files are in a hidden directory, so you will need to enable to view the hidden files. In the Windows Explorer do following to enable viewing on hidden files.
Tools -> Folder Options -> View ->
From Advanced settings Hidden files and folders:
Select Show hidden files and folders
Click ok.

3. Then you will have to go into your user profile's help cache location. This is normally at the following location:
<Windows Installation Directory>\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Application Data\Microsoft\HTML Help\

Where <Windows Installation Directory> is like C: or D:
and <USERNAME> is your windows login name.


4. Delete all the files you find in the above folder. You may wish to make a backup first. Simply copy the folder to another location.

You will see your problem may disappeared temporary but it is not permanent solution.

Solution of the Problem
After pop up keep opening I pressed many keys at a time and I see problem stops. And I tried to understand for which keystroke the problem stops. I also see all the time help related page and error appeared. So I guess the F1 key might be the culrpit. From my keyboard I removed F1 key and it worked really. So you have two solutions of the above problem. As this problem is hardware problem and specifically your keyboard's F1 is the culprit so either replace your keyboard with a new one and repair your keyboard so that F1 key does not keep pressed. In fact the problem arises since F1 key pressed continuously.