HXK Converter

Extract text from HXK files


Drop or upload your .HXK file
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How to extract text from your HXK file

  1. Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your HXK file.
  2. You’ll see a preview, if available.
  3. Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.

Convert HXK to another file type

To convert your HXK file to another format, you need Visual Studio or other Developer software.

Convert a file to HXK

To convert other file formats to the "Documentation Index" file type, you need software like Visual Studio or a similar tool.


About HXK files

The .HXK file is a Microsoft Help 2 Keyword Index, an XML-based component used in legacy documentation systems for Visual Studio .NET (2002–2008) and related development tools. Unlike a standalone document, this file functions strictly as a navigational map, containing a structured list of keywords that point to specific topics within a compiled HXS help file. Users commonly struggle with issues because .HXK files cannot be opened like a standard DOCX or PDF; they are merely dependencies that require a parent HxC (Collection) file and the Microsoft Document Explorer to function. Opening them directly usually results in raw XML code rather than a readable manual. For practical access, the best workflow is converting the file to TXT or XML to inspect the keyword structure, or using a migration tool like Help+Manual to import the legacy project and republish it as a modern PDF, CHM, or WebHelp format.

Convert.Guru analyzes your HXK file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.

Users also converted HXW, HXL and HXT files.


FAQ

If you want to convert HXK file to TMP, TEMP, CACHE, LOG, BAK, OLD, NEW, PART, DOWNLOAD, CRDOWNLOAD, LOCK or PID, you can use Visual Studio or similar software from the "Help System Indexing" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….

To convert DEVICE, CACHE, SOCK, SYMLINK, PID, MOUNT, FIFO, LOG, PIPE, TMP, JUNCTION or TEMP files to HXK, try Visual Studio or another comparable tool in the "Help System Indexing" category.



The HXK Converter Story

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 HXK converter.