Also, Max 6, running on Windows 7, 64-bit.

I've tried opening them in Max 5, both runtime and normal, and the same with Max 6. This leads me to think this is a system problem. Any help anyone?

Sheez. Renaming a file from foo.help to foo.maxhelp doesn't change the format. And .help was a Max *4* format, not Max 5.

Just open the .help file (without changing the name!!!) in Max 5 or 6, then Save it as a .maxhelp.

Dear Peter Castine, I'll rephrase your answer for you:

"Hi! Welcome to the Cycling 74 community. If you are new to Max/MSP this is one of the many things you'll eventually run into. As it turns out, .help files are actually from Max 4, when the help files were coded differently than in Max 5 and onwards. Max 5/6 should be able to read it, just open it, and then save it as a .maxhelp file, this will solve your issue. Glad to be of help!".

It's easy to see why every person I know advices me to stay away from the cycling 74 forums if one wants help with Max/MSP.

So, follow-up question. Does anyone know an easy way to batch process a lot of .help files into the .maxhelp format?

If you're on a mac, here's an applescript which will batch convert old .help files into .maxhelp files.