Unhelpful Help
Up until SQL 2012, I recommended installing Books On-Line (BOL) anywhere you installed SQL Server. It made looking up reference information simpler, especially when you were on a server that didn’t have direct Internet access. That all changed today. I started the new Help Viewer with a local copy of BOL. I actually found what I was looking for and closed the app. Or so I thought. Then I noticed something. A little parasite had attached itself to my system.
Yep, the “Help” system left an “agent” behind. Now I shouldn’t have to tell you that running application helper agents on server platforms is a bad idea. And it gets worse. There is no way to configure the app so that it does NOT start the parasite agent each time you restart help. So the solution becomes do not install help on production server platforms. Which is pretty unhelpful.