Family Historian User Group

I have read and actioned all of the advice etc and still get "Download Microsoft Edge" when I try to review a FMP suggestion.

I recently found that if I logged into my FMP Acccount, I can right click on the Review Icon and click on Open in New Window and review the suggested record.

The only solution that works for v6 is to set your preferences to use an external Web browser. Is this not working for you?

Thanks for the message

How do you, for v6 is to set your preferences to use an external Web browser?

Internet > Internet Data Matches... then Location to Display Matches: External Web Browser

See FHUG Knowledge Base Internet Data Matches Record Matching last sentence.

Hi Mike
Thank you for the advice.
The only suggestion that work for me is the Work Around.

Yes, unless you upgrade to FH V7.0 which fixes the problem.

For a reputable Company like Family Historian, I am very surprised that there is not a free download to solve this fundamental problem

So Calico are expected to continue to offer free updates to every previous version of Family Historian are they?

I'm with Nick -- although if we want a reputable company to be offering updates for old software, why aren't we asking Microsoft to continue to support their old browser? Or FMP to fix their product to support Microsoft's out-of-support browser?

I do not look on V7 as an update, rather than paying for more bells and whistles.
Doing a cost benefit analysis I decided to pay for the extra "tools".

Having the hints and being able to easily access FmP was one of the main reasons that I first bought Family Historian.

This facility, which I have already paid for is nolonger available, is what I would have expected to be resolved without further payment.

But it is available in the browser of your choice. It just isn't available using an unsupported Microsoft product any more. Many users only ever used an external browser because they prefer Firefox or chrome. You haven't lost functionality but need to modify your working method slightly.

On reflection it might not even be technically possible to retrofit the new Edge browser into version 6 as Microsoft have made significant changes to the way it cam be embedded. Some plugin authors are concerned that the impact of the changes might mean that their plugins cease to work.

Just a thought - I remember my uncle proudly showing me the family history database that he developed on his Sinclair ZX81 home computer. Forty years later, should Amstrad (who bought the rights from Sinclair) still offer free support?

Slightly extreme perhaps, but like most items, IT products have a finite lifetime.

Perhaps we ought to remember that we would be annoyed if something we valued ceased to work in the way we liked to use it... Even if there are two ways for Colin to carry on accessing FMP and the hints, both involve some degree of disruption. The cost of an upgrade to v7 may not seem like a lot but if you don't want the extra features the inescapable learning curve will take time and effort which might not be justified to get an internal browser back. And switching to an external browser may be free but only in monetary terms.

So although it's unrealistic in today's world to expect software to continue to work forever, it is annoying when you're confronted with forced change.

Could one do a hack by installing the embedded browser WebView2 (based on Edge/Chromium), and changing the filename of the executable to be the same as the IE executable that FH6 is expecting?

I haven't yet tested this because 1) I have always used an external browser 2) I am expecting to switch to V7 any day now and 3) I've been trying to wrangle other computer issues (which is why I haven't installed FH7 yet).

I'd be very surprised if that is even feasible and unlikely to work anyway as the interface is almost certainly different.
IE and Edge are not a single simple executable. In fact most applications are not a single executable.
Try swapping fh.exe with RootsMagic.exe and you will find that the FH icon does NOT run RootsMagic!

Point taken, Mike, but since we were talking about an embedded program, I thought it would be worth asking.

Some time ago, before Firefox was completely revamped, there was an add-on to allow you to run IE in a Firefox tab for sites which needed to be viewed in IE. I am not a developer or web designer, so I have no idea how that worked. (Using it did cause many nasty messages from Ancestry about how I was allowing multiple people in the same household onto my account.)

The only way I can know what's possible without mucking around and destroying things is to ask.