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Is there any way to obtain, or has someone already obtained and compiled documentation from MS Technet Library for offline use?

I know of the Visual Studio Help Downloader at codeplex https://vshd.codeplex.com/ and I am looking for something similar for the Technet Library.

The Library itself has an option to select articles for export however, it is very limited in number of pages to add per click. This means you have to drill down on every subject and add it to your selection. Not very usable, besides the examples state you should be able to download as pdf or html, but I only get the html option, which is annoyingly impractical.

Ideally I would like to have the complete offline documentation for a single top-level subject (e.g. "Scripting with Windows PowerShell" at https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb978526.aspx). If possible, including an index/TOC.

I know of the built-in Get-Help, the books available etc. but the Technet Library has more detailed information available which I'm after. Any known method of downloading this in bulk would be greatly appreciated.

All my google search results seem to either point to the built in export funcion, or people reminiscing about the old offline Technet subscription.

mvdwrd
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    Are you looking for [`Update-Help`](https://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh849720.aspx)? Other than that you probably have to resort to either web-scraping Technet or buying dead tree. – Ansgar Wiechers Mar 29 '16 at 12:52
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    No, not really. I know what it does but I would really like some compiled help format to use outside of the shell and do easy lookups/reading and also check what versions support a certain feature etc. – mvdwrd Mar 29 '16 at 12:57

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Ok, its not great. But its better than the above... I know this is old. But I was looking for this. This is the best I found. So Ill leave my breadcrumbs for the next fool to stumble down this road. If someone else finds better, hopefully theyll continue to pass it on.

On Github, you can download the entire Doc repo as a zip. Read it with microsoft code and a markdown extension.

Ideally, Id like to see this as a CHM (rather than a PDF).

https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell-Docs

Andy T
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I was surprised to find that this is well documented, and actually is a thing:

Taking TechNet Offline

When you start the process, it'll give you some instructions, and once you click "Start," you'll be shown the hierarchy of the entirety of that root page you linked on the left. Note the instructions in orange at the top.

enter image description here

I didn't go much further then this, but let us know if this worked in full, and as you expected it to. Nice feature there! I learned something myself today.

gravity
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  • Sorry but I mentioned this in my question (perhaps by the wrong name) "The Library itself has an option to select articles for export however, it is very limited in number of pages to add per click. This means you have to drill down on every subject and add it to your selection. Not very usable, besides the examples state you should be able to download as pdf or html, but I only get the html option, which is annoyingly impractical." This is not what I am looking for... many links including up to 3 levels deep are too big to select at once. Also, html output.. – mvdwrd Mar 29 '16 at 17:18
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I have had mixed success with HTTrack You can give it a site a page and it will go through all links and resources recursively, saving them locally.

It requires some tuning and playing around with to get right, There might even be a newer better equivalent these days.

Nick
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