Family Historian User Group

Not that I have anything against PCs or Microsoft but I have been toying with the idea of moving to some sort of Apple computer.

I believe that FH4 can be made to work on a Mac (not sure of the degree of difficulty involved) but will Ancestral Sources also work on a Mac - presumably using some form of emulation?

Gerry

ID:4878

Both currently are only supported by using a Virtual machine, which is effectively running windows on a Mac.

Thanks, Jane.

Does that mean that both FH4 and AS would work with a program such as Parallels, which says it is Virtualization software?

Not having used such a program before I would be a bit concerned about how I would load FH onto a Mac given that I have the original FH3 disk and FH4 upgrade disks. Similarly, would there be any issues about downloading AS to a Mac? Would I just treat the Mac as if it was a PC?

Gerry

Hi Gerry,
  I use Parallels' on my MAC, and run a Windows Vista virtual machine which is on what i have FH & AS. Basically what you will find is that parallels basically gives you a PC in a 'window' on your MAC so it will be no different to what you are used today.

Richard

Richard,

Thanks very much. Not having ever used a Mac (other than toying with one in the local Apple store) I wasn't sure whether I could run my PC software - not being able to use FH and AS would be a deal-breaker for me!

Are there any speed issues - does Parallels slow things down?

Gerry

Hi Gerry,
I'm probably not the best person to ask about the speed, as i have a fairly high spec Mac Pro with 9Gb of memory, but certainly the 'PC' on my set up runs faster than my old PC did, and i can happily have MAC applications running at the same time.
What i would suggest is that if you do buy one, just make sure you have a good amount of memory and hard drive space (much like a PC) and you will be fine.

Richard

Richard,

That sounds quite a powerful machine! I don't think I would need anything quite as big. But it looks as if I wouldn't be any worse off with a Mac provided I get enough memory.

Thanks for your help. Next move is to speak to the Apple shop and get them to advise on the spec!

Gerry

Following up my previous post I can now report that I am now the proud owner of an Apple iMac. Both FH4 and AS are working well under Parallels with no apparent problems or any discernible speed penalty. In fact the whole process of transferring my Windows PC to my Mac - the operating system (Windows XP) and all the software and documents - was remarkably simple using Parallels Switch to Mac edition, which provides a USB cable to connect the two computers.

The only issue I have found is that the Mac keyboard doesn't always produce the correct character in Windows under Parallels. For example, the 'double quote' (ie as illustrated!)  symbol key produces an @ symbol and vice versa. I have resolved this particular problem (I think) by creating a custom Keyboard Profile in Parallels.

Many thanks to Richard for his help and support.

Gerry

Glad to hear everything has gone smoothly for you on your upgrade, the certainly did make the process easy of setting up the virtual machines on parallels.

I to had the 'problem' with the keyboard, but i just learn't to live with it as i tend to touch type rather than look at the keys


Richard

I am planning to switch to a Mac soon (my 7 year old PC needs replacing!)

Has anyone got FH and Ancestral Sources to run using Crossover?
I have the FH version 2 CD & the updgrade CDs for v. 3 & 4 so wondered if it would install & upgrade properly using crossover.

Otherwise I'll probbaly use Parallels (or Fusion) to install windows but would rather not bother with Windows if I can.

I don't run Mac or Crossover but the Crossover website http://www.codeweavers.com says it is compatible with several versions of Family Historian.
Use the Compatibility Search option.

Why not try the Free Trial version, perhaps on friends Mac?

Which variety of FH Version 2 CD do you have?
If it is an early one that needs a CD-backed Installer it may not work.
See the Knowledge Base on Installer Problems with Version 2 under How to Install on 64-bit Windows 7, Vista, or XP
at http://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id ... it_windows

The keyboard issue sounds like the one that used to happen with a straight UK install of windows.
The US layout keyboard used to be installed by default (the main thing to show up is the reversal of @ and ', but there are other issues as well, such as dissappearance of £ symbol).
I don't use a MAC, but it may simply be a case of that windows has installed with US keyboard instead of UK.
In which case you add UK as default country, add UK keyboard and delete US one. You get an error message that layout is in use and will be deleted at next reboot.

An update on this.
I now have my Mac mini.

I have installed the 30 day trial version of Crossover for Mac. I was able to successfully install Family Historian version 2.07 from the CD onto the Mac. I then used the FH version 3 upgrade CD which installed OK but the screen that asked for the registration key froze.

I have just tried to download the trial version of FH 4 from the Calico website.
On running FH 4.1 I was getting a mfc42.dll error message but the crossover website forum said to solve mfc42.dll dependency, I should install the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Redistributable package into the same bottle.
This installed successfully and I am able to use FH4.1 - tried a few functions so far.
However it is not registered so asks for the registration key on starting it (or use for 30 days as a trial version)

I also have the version 4 upgrade CD. The registration key I have that came with that CD is not recognised.
Any suggestions on how to proceed from here?

Many thanks,
Jeremy

You will need to get V3 to install to use the upgrade as the V4 upgrade licenses are different from those for the trial

Jane,

I had installed the v 3 upgrade from the CD but the screen asking for the v3 licence key froze - I entered the correct key but could not get past that point.

FH seems to run OK when I install the trial for version 4 so it looks like just the activation that needs to be solved. I will post on the Crossover forums to see if anyone there has any ideas.