The
user experience for Microsoft Help Viewer 1.x is that topics can be viewed in any installed
web browser – a separate application, such as the
Microsoft Document Explorer included with Microsoft Help 2, is not necessary. The browser-based model is meant to provide a more lightweight navigation, downloading, and reading experience than earlier help-viewer models. Visual Studio 2010 includes a
taskbar applet in the Windows notification area (system tray) that arbitrates between viewing offline help and online help in the browser when F1 is pressed, and resolves help topic
URIs to the proper topic page. It also includes a "library manager" application to manage the download, installation and uninstallation of help topics on the system, as well as whether to prefer online help when connected to the Internet. Microsoft Help Viewer 2.0 uses a COM runtime library, so the taskbar applet is no longer used. The format is unchanged. The runtime API is accessible via .NET dlls used in VS2012 and Windows 8; they are equivalent except for a name change. VS2012 ships a more sophisticated toolkit (HlpViewer and HlpCtntMgr), while Windows 8 only has a one-pane HelpPane program. ==File format==