Family Historian User Group

Hello,
I am struggling to get my laptop FH install activated. The hard-drive had melt down, I have installed a new HD and have a fresh install of Windows 7 Pro on it, like it had before.

I get the following error when trying to login to activate Family Historian 7: Login - Internet Exception caught. dwError = 12157 (PX9804); Trace = 7

I searched here and the only hit I found said: "Enabling something called "TLS 1.2""

It was not enabled but now I have done that, with no change

I went online (on this same laptop) and logged into my account on the Family-Historian website with no problem, I thought maybe I could remove the laptop from the 2 activations, but I did not find a screen for that.

I hope someone here has some idea what I can do.
Thank you for all you do
Randy C

Report it to Calico Pie via http://support.calico-pie.com/open.php.

However Windows 7 is no longer on the supported list of environments (https://www.family-historian.co.uk/supp ... quirements) so you may be out of luck. Microsoft no longer provide an update service for windows 7 so your fresh install is probably missing years of patches and CP only ever supported W7 with all the patches up to the point Microsoft withdrew the update server. Can you reinstall from an up-to-date disk image?

Obviously no new updates have been produced for ages, but are you sure that old ones have been withdrawn? I’ve never tried it with W7, but I had an old standalone XP box that I could reinstall from an old CD and update online well after the end of official support.

Edited to add that I wouldn’t see that as anything other than a temporary fix. Continuing to use an unsupported OS is very risky unless it is an isolated PC with no internet access. Free online upgrade to W10 is still available if you do a web search for how.

Mark1834 wrote: ↑

12 Mar 2023 08:29

Obviously no new updates have been produced for ages, but are you sure that old ones have been withdrawn?

It may be possible to download and install them all manually, from the Microsoft Update catalog, but good luck deciding which ones to install out of the more than 1000 items listed. SP1 would be a good start, but what else...???

Agree - it's not viable to update manually, but all I was questioning was whether the automatic W7 "Check for Updates" menu option still works to restore the PC to the latest (obsolete) W7 configuration.

I don't know whether MS have deactivated that for W7 or not, but it continued to work in XP long after the end of official support.

To reiterate though - it is a stopgap, not a long term solution.

Mark1834 wrote: ↑

12 Mar 2023 08:29

Free online upgrade to W10 is still available if you do a web search for how.

Not necessarily a device that will update if it doesn't meet the W10 criteria (I see the same scenario with W10 devices where Update says it's not compatible for a W11 update). I agree though, running an obsolete OS online is risky, especially if it has been re-imaged and no security patches applied.

In addition to the Windows 7 updates (or lack of them) being a problem, I believe there is an incompatibility between the network protocols that W7 supports and the protocols implemented in later versions of Windows (including I suspect the CP servers, and Microsoft Automatic Update servers).

The definitive answer can only come from CP, however.

Simple enough for the OP to check the first step when he’s back on line. Does “Check for updates” do anything or not? Agree though that plenty of other things will eventually stop working in even a fully patched W7, not just FH.

RandyC wrote: ↑

12 Mar 2023 01:54

I am struggling to get my laptop FH install activated. The hard-drive had melt down, I have installed a new HD and have a fresh install of Windows 7 Pro on it, like it had before.

This is such an alarming statement. You should not be using Windows 7 (unless you never ever connect it to the Internet which you clearly do). Windows 7 is extremely insecure, it has security vulnerabilities that have not been fixed that hackers are well aware of. It was released 14 years ago (ancient history in IT terms) and reached end of support 3 years ago. Please don't continue to use it. It should be possible to upgrade it to Windows 10 free of charge if you are not prepared to buy a new laptop.

Good Morning,

Thank you all for your advice.

I will look into the windows update question and I will check on the "up-to-date disk image"

I went with the "fresh" install of windows 7 because it was the recommended way to go if you are switching to an SSD, actually I have always liked to do fresh installs to get the machine running the way it did out of the factory.

ColeValleyGirl wrote: ↑

12 Mar 2023 07:12

Report it to Calico Pie via http://support.calico-pie.com/open.php.

However Windows 7 is no longer on the supported list of environments (https://www.family-historian.co.uk/supp ... quirements)

I am very curious as to when CP removed support for windows 7 on FH7, they had it listed on the system requirements when I purchased it. I have been reading those requirements very carefully since a very tense upgrade to MS-DOS 6.0, which only seems like yesterday not an eternity ago.

I will let you know about the updates

Great News!

First about Microsoft's support for windows 7, the activation of the new install using the key on the OEM sticker went perfectly. But ya'll were right about there being NO updates installed, although the win7 disc was SP1.

Microsoft updates are still available for windows 7, at first updates wouldn't go online but I found a patch to install that got it working: KB3138612-x64

I have only begun the process of getting the updates installed. But while I was going through what was installed I realized the .NET was not installed, I found that previously it had version 4, MS has all the versions available, so I got it installed.

So the activation login worked, I was able to de-activate the old FH7 install and activate the new one!

I really think the .NET 4.0 fixed the problem, but I have installed 50 of the other updates so far, so I can't say for sure.

Thanks everyone for the help
Randy

So you are going to continue to use Windows 7. Madness.

I agree that is very risky!

You all are very gloomy!

But I still thank you for all you do to help us noobs get the hang of FH. Your hints helped me get my program validated and that was the original question.

Thanks again

"I'm driving my car with no brakes"
"Get your brakes fixed, you'll crash!"
"Oh you are so gloomy"

RandyC wrote: ↑

13 Mar 2023 20:01

You all are very gloomy!

Not really, Nick is a programmer, I work in IT Desktop support and I've seen the carnage a virus or lack of security updates can cause. Just trying to alert you to the realities of running a PC using an operating system 3 years out of support, with no security patches since then.

Not gloomy, just realistic. I assume you have multiple backups should the worst occur?

RandyC wrote: ↑

13 Mar 2023 20:01

You all are very gloomy!

But I still thank you for all you do to help us noobs get the hang of FH. Your hints helped me get my program validated and that was the original question.

Thanks again

I sincerely hope you don't use that PC for on-line banking!

I think the point has been made sufficiently about the insecurity of Windows 7, so I'm locking this topic.