When I try and open Help and Support in XP, I get an error telling me I need to start the Help and Support service. When I go into services.msc to do this, the Help and Support service is not listed 1 person needs an answerI do too

This has happened to others in the past,its usually caused by a corrupted user account.Delete the user & open a new one.Also,you might open cmd & type: Sfc /Scannow You'll need the xp cd,as this cmd repairs &/or replaces corrupted or missing windows files...

A missing Help and Support service does not fit the symptoms of a corrupt user profile. The Help and Support Service is system wide and does not belong to a particular user, and if you think your user profile is corrupted, you better not just delete it unless you want to lose all the stuff belonging to the user you are deleting. That is not a good way to handle a corrupt or suspicious user profile - unless you want angry users!Have you ever used any third party applications on your system where the product description includes such descriptive phrases as:cleaner, mechanic, detective, cure, optimize, clean up, tune up, speed up, fix up, compact, compress, faster, power, boost, booster, guaranteed.The Help and Support Center sometimes get broken with overzealous cleaning and there are lots of things to "try" that sometimes work and sometimes they don't. Sometimes people just give up and never use Help and Support Center again, but it can always be repaired.We can reinstall the missing Help and Support Service in a couple of ways, let's start with the least complicated:Using Windows Explorer, browse to and locate c:\windows\inf\pchealth.inf. THat is the Help and Support installation information file. Right click the pchealth.inf file and choose to Install.You may be prompted to enter your XP installation CD as it looks for the installation files. The files are on your XP installation CD or, if you have no XP installation CD, the files will already on your system from the original installation (if Help and Support was working before) - you just need to tell the installation where to look for them.You may want to locate the files on your system before you start the installation so you will know where to tell the installation to look when it needs a file.If you don't have an XP installation CD, change the "Copy file from" dialogue (by clicking the Browse and Retry buttons) to point to the appropriate folder for each requested file. Usually, the files are in these folders.dataspec.xml (c:\windows\servicepackfiles\i386)pchdt_w3.cab (c:\windows\pchealth\helpctr\binaries)HCAppRes.dll (c:\windows\pchealth\helpctr\binaries)atrace.dll (c:\windows\system32)If those files are not in the same place on your system, you need to do a Windows Search on your system for the file you need and point the installation to the correct folder for your system.Reboot your system to be sure the installation is complete and check in the Services now to see the condition of the Help and Support Service.If the Help and Support service is not running, right click it, Start it and then be sure the Properties are set to Automatic, reboot again and be sure it starts on it's own.If for some reason that does not get your Help and Support Service installed (maybe you can't find the files) you can follow these other instructions from Ramesh:http://windowsxp.mvps.org/helpsvc.htmDon't guess what the problem might be - figure it out and fix it. I need YOUR votes and points for helpful replies and Propose as Answers. I am saving up for a pony!