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Download Help Files In VS2013

Sam Weddington 20 Reputation points
2026-03-26T03:58:05.5833333+00:00

Needing to locate site to download help files for Microsoft Windows 2013?

Screenshot 2026-03-25 225658

Or I will just use the disc to upload help files.

Sam

Developer technologies | Visual Studio | Setup
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  1. Leon Tran (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 1,740 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-03-26T05:31:16.7466667+00:00

    Hi @Sam Weddington,

    Visual Studio 2013 is now out of support. For this version, Microsoft no longer provides online content, download sources, or ISO files. The error indicates that the online source is no longer available.

    If you are looking for a similar and supported alternative, we recommend using Visual Studio 2015. Visual Studio 2015 still uses the ISO file and has behavior similar to Visual Studio 2013, which helps maintain compatibility.

    You can download Visual Studio 2015 Community here. If you still need Visual Studio 2013, you can search for it on internet resources. However, please be careful when downloading and installing from such sources.

    Hope this helps! If my answer was helpful, please consider marking it as the answer so others with the same issue can benefit as well. You can follow this guidance to see how to do it.

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  1. Sam Weddington 20 Reputation points
    2026-03-30T00:48:45.7166667+00:00

    Lost interest to find .NET reflector. My ISO is missing the help files. Screenshot 2026-03-29 194738

    Was able to find the online documentation online. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/visualstudio/visual-studio-2013

    Thanks.


  2. Sam Weddington 20 Reputation points
    2026-03-26T11:32:04.4833333+00:00

    I have the ISO file for VS2013. I am going to try .NET reflector or the ISO and will reply by next week.

    https://blog.csdn.net/zhaopeng01zp/article/details/124123934

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  3. Q&A Assist
    2026-03-26T03:58:19.4266667+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    For Visual Studio 2013, Help content is obtained and managed through Microsoft Help Viewer rather than by downloading separate “Windows 2013” help files from a web page.

    To install or repair local Help for VS2013:

    1. Open Help Viewer from Visual Studio 2013 (Help → Add and Remove Help Content, or launch HelpViewer.exe for VS2013).
    2. On the Manage Content tab, under Installation source, keep the default Online option so content is pulled from Microsoft’s online service.
    3. Under Recommended Documentation or Available Documentation, locate the Visual Studio 2013 document sets that are needed and choose Add.
    4. Choose Update to download and install the local Help content.

    If Help needs to be deployed from another machine or from media instead of downloading directly:

    1. On a machine that has internet access, use Help Viewer as above to download all required VS2013 content.
    2. Package the downloaded Help store by copying the HelpLibrary2 folder, for example:
      • Create a folder such as C:\VSHelp.
      • Run an elevated Command Prompt and execute:
             Xcopy %ProgramData%\Microsoft\HelpLibrary2 C:\VSHelp\ /y /e /k /o
        
    3. Copy C:\VSHelp (for example via network share or disc) to the target machine and place it under %ProgramData%\Microsoft\HelpLibrary2 so Help Viewer can use it as the local store.
    4. In Help Viewer on the target machine, ensure the Local Store Path points to that location (Manage Content → Local Store Path → Move, if needed).

    If an administrator wants clients to install from a pre-populated store instead of the internet, the same copied HelpLibrary2 folder can be hosted on a network share and used as the source per the Help Viewer administrator guidance.


    References:

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