Maya-Help me! I can't open help in browser when I press F1

[Anonymous]

I want watch Maya 's help page in Chrome, so I press F1 ,but I got a error in below picture.it talk me I lack files,what's files?

[Anonymous]

I just install Maya in my computer and then I open it , I want to watch Maya's help,so I press F1,But I got a error!, // Error: file: E:/Program/Autodesk/Product/Maya2018/scripts/startup/initHelp.mel line 492: Unable to display 'http://www.autodesk.com/maya-help-2018-enu/' in a browser.so I also open other helps,like Maya Tutorials, But it 's also this error :Unable to display 'xxx' in a browser , Why?

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous and welcome to the community!

If you go to Help->Autodesk Maya Help and click it instead of pressing F1 does that work for you?

I just tried both on my machine and had no issues.

Let me know if anything changes!

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

Kudos are greatly appreciated. Everyone likes a thumbs up!

[Anonymous]

Thanks your answer, and I tried went to Help-Autodesk Maya Help,It also can't work, The error is no change, and like other 'help, I also already reinstall my Maya, I followed the official' s tutorial to remove Auto desk product, I delete all file about auto desk product, include Autodesk desktop app, and I reinstall it, but nothing is change, I'm confusing. I deleted the registery when I deleted the Autodesk product from the official tutorial, is registery wrong?

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

If you did a clean uninstall/reinstall of Maya then that shouldn't be the problem.

When you get a chance, can you please try changing your default browser then try opening it again?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Oh! Thank you ,finally, I  find the cause of the problem,firstly, I know the error is "Window can't find UCHTML\shell\open\command " , I believe the file is registry file , Secondly ,today ,I know that UC refers to a browser , so I think Maya think my default browser is UC browser , but I have not UC browser ,so Maya get me a error , then I download UC browser , as I said , Maya open help page in UC browser , Now I know have some wrong registry information refer to open html file by UC browser , I tried to change my default browser by modify registry , I went to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell\open\command->modify command 's default as google's path in my computer and went to  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell\open\ddeexec\Application->change default'value is chrome , but it also can't work , so I think also have something more important I think I'm close to the answer , so I check it step by step , Eventually ,  I went to Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm and Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html , change they're default value is ChromeHTML , then the problem is solved . god! Now I can open the Maya help page by F1 at last . 

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

Glad you figured it out!

Thanks as well for coming back and explaining what you did and marking it as a solution!

[Anonymous]

I followed your instructions but cannot find the right path of my registry relevant to this problem.

But I spotted a regtistry folder named "htmlfile" right above "http" so I'v find the exact registry i needed to modify in:

"HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\shell\open\command"

[steve_r]

Since I hit the same problem in Maya 2019 on Win 10, I had to touch the Registry as well. Maya should find another way to start the help on Win 10.

I found this related issue on Microsoft Support:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3094186/you-are-prompted-to-specify-internet-explorer-when-...

[steve_r]

I attach an example .reg file (zipped) that should add "open" and "opennew" shell operations to "htmlfile" type (working on an English version of Windows). It will open the preferred browser for a HTML file. Import into Registry editor, or just double-click the .reg file.

[francois_maree]

Thanks @steve_r. I have Maya 2020.2 on a Windows 10 machine and ran into the same issue. Your registry entry fixed it for me.

[softdrawArt]

Here is how Maya opens help 🙂

When you press F1 or open help elswhere in Maya it triggers mell script that has a link to a registry "Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\"name of browser"\shell\open\command" where name of browser can be missing so the easiest way of seting it up is to open regedit and go to Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\shell\open\command create if you have not one and set "Default" string value data to "rundll32.exe url.dll,FileProtocolHandler %1" which is going to open the default browser everytime you trigger this registry

Now we just have to go to "Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm" and set "Default" string value data to the name of the browser in our case its "htmlfile". So now if you press F1 in Maya it will go to "htmlfile\shell\open\command" and open "Default" string with a value data "rundll32.exe url.dll,FileProtocolHandler %1" which is going to open the default browser!

Hope it clears things out 🙂

[softdrawArt]

Here is how Maya opens help 🙂

When you press F1 or open help elswhere in Maya it triggers mell script that has a link to a registry "Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\"name of browser"\shell\open\command" where name of browser can be missing so the easiest way of seting it up is to open regedit and go to Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\shell\open\command create if you have not one and set "Default" string value data to "rundll32.exe url.dll,FileProtocolHandler %1" which is going to open the default browser everytime you trigger this registry

Now we just have to go to "Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm" and set "Default" string value data to the name of the browser in our case its "htmlfile". So now if you press F1 in Maya it will go to "htmlfile\shell\open\command" and open "Default" string with a value data "rundll32.exe url.dll,FileProtocolHandler %1" which is going to open the default browser!

Hope it clears things out 🙂

[rongfuQ2HZD]

Thanks, Steve!

I ran into the same issue(Maya 2020.1 edu version) and that solved it. 

[kokido81]

thanks!

I found that for Opera GX you have to change the variable in Opera GXStable

import _winreg

htm = _winreg.OpenKey(_winreg.HKEY_CURRENT_USER,"SOFTWARE\\Classes\\.htm", 0, _winreg.KEY_ALL_ACCESS)
_winreg.SetValueEx(htm, '', 0, 1, "Opera GXStable")
_winreg.CloseKey(htm)

for Opera is Opera.HTML