3.2.3rc2 and 3.3.0a2, freshly downloaded and installed, Win7, 64 bit
Start Menue/Pythonxx/Module Docs
Brings up tkinter pydoc box.
[open browser] brings up *empty* localhost:7464 window.
Search 'tkinter' and double-click tkinter entry or select and [go to selected] opens empty localhost:7464/tkinter.html window.

This worked sometime last year on earlier 3.2, maybe on xp box.

I thought there might be an issue already, but I searched for 'pydoc' and 'modole docs' and found nothing.

Hmm, we changed a few things with the way the back end server for pydoc works in 3.2. I didn't realise there was a Windows shortcut though, and I don't know how it gets generated. It sounds like it is still using the "-g" option, which is now deprecated.

If you run "pydoc -b" from a command line window, does that work correctly?

("-g" should still work as well, even though it's deprecated, but knowing whether or not "-b" is also broken may help diagnose the problem)

C:\Programs\Python32\Tools\Scripts>..\..\pythonw pydocgui.pyw -b
has the same behavior I described. So does -g.

The shortcut has been part of the Windows installation for many versions. It obviously uses pydocgui.py.

C:\Programs\Python32\Lib>pydoc.py -b
# starts one python.exe process
# prints on the next lines in the command window
Server ready at http://localhost:50695/
Server commands: [b]rowser, [q]uit
server>
# and opens blank localhost:50695 browser window
after asking for permission for python to access local network (which I gave). 'b' at prompt opens another blank window.

C:\Programs\Python32\Lib>pydoc.py -w difflib
#prints
wrote difflib.html
#which it did, looking as expected when opened in browser, with lots of cross-links.

So what it seems is not working in either case is opening the html page in the browser or connecting it to the server.

C:\Programs\Python32\Lib>webbrowser.py python.org
opens the page in *Internet Explorer* rather than Firefox (my default browser). pydoc tried to connect to the server in a new FF tab.

When I re-ran pydoc and tried to open localhost:50695 in IE, it gave me the result of a Bing search (one help forum post), so neither browser can find anything at that url.

On current 3.3.4 and 3.4.0 start menus, clicking Module Docs does nothing that I can see except add a useless entry to the Frequent Programs list. 

I think the entry should be removed from the menu until it is made to work. All it does now is frustrate people and make Python look bad.

We're also having the same issue here as well - I will delete the shortcut as a temporary fix!

Thanks, Hq.

Nick: the menu entry currently launches tools\scripts\pydocgui.pyw, with no command line options.

New changeset de81e0fe4905 by Martin v. Löwis in branch 'default':
Issue #14512: Launch pydoc -b instead of pydocgui.pyw on Windows.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/de81e0fe4905

cherry-picking request in Issue20834.

I will personally not backport this to 3.3.

FTR: the server itself works fine for me. I don't see an empty window, but the proper library index. Terry, if the issue persists for you even after the change to pydoc -b, please submit *another* issue.

New changeset fa34ea4e9e47 by Martin v. Löwis in branch '3.4':
Issue #14512: Launch pydoc -b instead of pydocgui.pyw on Windows.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/fa34ea4e9e47