Extract text from Windows help files (HLP)
To convert HLP help files to another format, you need Windows Help or other System software.
To convert other file formats to the "Legacy Help File" file type, you need software like Windows Help or a similar tool.
The .HLP file is a legacy Windows Help format used by older software to display user documentation and manuals. Originally introduced in Windows 3.0, it relies on the WinHlp32.exe program to display indexed, rich-text content and hyperlinks.
The format has severe disadvantages today. It is completely obsolete and poses significant security risks because the format allows executable macros to run. Consequently, Microsoft deprecated .HLP support starting in Windows Vista and removed native viewing capabilities entirely in Windows 10 and Windows 11. Users encountering these files today cannot read them without encountering system errors.
To access the information inside, you should convert the .HLP file to a modern, secure format like PDF, HTML, or RTF. During conversion, some legacy formatting or complex internal macro behaviors will be lost, but the core text and images will be preserved.
This is a closed, proprietary compiled binary format. Standard online converters fail to process it because it requires specialized reverse-engineering decompilers (such as Help Deco) to extract the internal Rich Text Format (RTF) files and bitmaps. We can inspect the file and show text or internal content safely, bypassing the security risks of executing the legacy code.
Convert.Guru analyzes your HLP file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted CHM, GID, HPL, CNT, ZIP, PDF, SHG, HELP, EXE, RTF, URL, LAY6 and PLAN files.
If you want to convert HLP file to CHM, PDF, HTML, SYS, DLL, EXE, DRV, VXD, 386, COM, BAT or CMD, you can use Windows Help or similar software from the "Legacy Application Documentation" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MSI, EXE, REG, MST, LNK, CAB, CAT, DRV, INF, SYS, MSU or DLL files to HLP, try Windows Help or another comparable tool in the "Legacy Application Documentation" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our HLP converter.