Well I am sure that most people have seen the following:

This time, I did not install the local MSDN so I do not have the option of Local help, however I usually always use the first option of look online a开发者_如何学Pythonnyway.

I was wondering if there are any downsides to not installing MSDN?

The only one I have found so far is that dynamic help does not seem to work. As this is a feature I love, I think I will install MSDN.

I was just wondering, are there any other downsides and what do others use?

Edit -

It is hard to really select one answer here and I did various experiments and came up with my own conclusion. They are all good points so +1 to everyone - I was going to put this as an answer and mark it, but that feels rather cheap... so I have edited the question and will have to think about who to mark as answer.

I have been experimenting with different combinations and it is weird to say the least. On a new project, I just pressed F1 at random places and it is amazing that the differences are huge in the pages which are returned - For example, just selecting a <form> tag and pressing F1 came up with 100% different results between online and offline help.

I love the dynamic help feature but I always have an internet connection... I am confused and just not sure what I should do! Another benefit I have found is that through offline help, you can sync the sidebar and navigate around VERY quickly and find other articles - which is much harder online.

I think I will install help, but I am really not that happy... I hope the help feature is improved in VS2010 (haven't had a chance to play around or see) because it shouldn't be this hard to try and choose!

@blaketaylor.nameindex.ht - I personally find Google a bit mucky when I just want to figure out one property or item etc... I like looking in MSDN / Documentation first as there is usually a good example and then just look at Google after if I cannot figure it out - the dynamic help feature is a brilliant feature which I love and skips straight to the correct part in the library, and you do not get this without installing help.

@Shiraz Bhaiji - Agreed with your points, however, I think 2GB's is not really huge. I like your comparison.

@Yassir - It disabled the dynamic help feature, 2GB's isn't huge, I do like Google and SO but I like to try and get it done on my own first.

@Stephen Nutt - Agreed about speed, but it isn't really by much. How do you see local and online help at the same time? I love Dynamic help but when I click a link, it goes straight to local help and I see no options.

I have never found the local help to be of any use. I stopped installing it years ago and have never looked back.

Google is my help.

The main downside to not installing local help is that you do not have access to help if you do not have access to the internet.

The benefits of not having it local are:

• Always up to date
• Does not use space on your harddisk

I really don't think you might need it unless you don't have no internet connection all the time

also it takes about 2Gb of your hard drive !!

All you need is google and SO :)

I always use local help - it is much faster to navigate around in. When I do a search it always brings up the results count in my local help and online, if I see nothing in my local help I just click on the online tab and see the online search results.