I have received a lot of emails over the last week from users experiencing this error. When the Windows Support service won’t run it can be 2 things.

  1. You have disabled help and support in the service manager or,
  2. A registry string may be corrupted or missing.

Click read more for the solution to this Windows Support Error!

Registry Fix for Windows Support Error

If you get an error Windows cannot find HELPCTR.EXE, it may be that a registry entry has gotten corrupted.

  1. Go to Start -> Type – Regedit and hit OK
  2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\HELPCTR.EXE
  3. If the key isn’t there, right click and create a new key HELPCTR.EXE
  4. It should have a value of C:\WINDOWS\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Binaries\HelpCtr.exe
  5. Now reboot.

Re-Enabling the Windows Support Service

  1. Go to start -> control panel -> switch to category view on the left hand side of the control panel.
  2. Now click Performance and Maintenance
  3. Click Administrative tools, then double click the icon Services.
  4. Scroll down the list until you see the Help & Support then double click it to bring up the properties of the Windows Help and Support Services.
  5. If its disables, select Manual, then select start and hit Apply.
  6. Now close the services window and reboot.

Shawn DesRochers

Found this post useful? Buy me a coffee.

Tags: , , , ,