HOW TO access MSDN documentation offline/locally with Visual Studio 2012

Till a few years ago, MSDN subscribers could opt to receive the MSDN documentation on a CD\DVD. Though this facility been discontinued, the MSDN documentation is now available for offline use even for the free Visual Studio Express edition users. Local availability of the documentation is most helpful if have a low bandwidth Internet connection and you need faster access.

To access MSDN documentation locally in any edition of Studio 2012, go to the Help menu option, select "Set Help Preference" and then choose "Launch in Help Viewer".

From the Microsoft Help Viewer dialog box that opens up, you can select which MSDN topics you wish to download.

Once installed, you can fire up the F1 shortcut key to view the documentation.