If port 47873 is used by another process (not via the http.sys service), the Help Library Agent will not be able to attach ...

If port 47873 is used by another process (not via the http.sys service), the Help Library Agent will not be able to attach and use that port and will fail.  You can change the port number by adding the string registry value AgentPort under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Help\v1.0 with the value of the port to use (for example, 81).  Because of the http.sys ACL settings, you must run the following http.sys configuration command from an administrator-elevated command line.  On Vista, Windows 2003, and Windows 7 run the following command:

netsh http add urlacl url=http://127.0.0.1:/help/ sddl=D:(A;;GX;;;WD)

On Windows XP and Windows 2003 run the following command:

httpcfg set urlacl /u http://127.0.0.1:/help/ /a D:(A;;GX;;;WD)

If the command is not found, you may have to download httpcfg.exe from Microsoft as part of the Windows XP Service Pack 3 Support Tools (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=206681).
Now the Help Library Agent will run on the selected port number.