Family Historian User Group

In the next few weeks I will probably be investing in a new laptop, which, if I delay, may well be Vista rather than XP.
Will Family Historian (ver 3) run with it?

Apologies if this has ben asked before.

ID:2006

My understanding is that, V3 will run fine, however if you need to install V2 first there may be an issue with 2.0 disks, but latter 2.1 disks are OK

I have not confirmed this as I do not yet have a full copy of Vista only a latter beta.

I have a version 2.07 disk and a Version 3 upgrade disk. I expect to move to Windows Vista on a new computer some time next year. If 2.0 disks cannot be used with Windows Vista does this mean I will not be able to have FH on my new computer? [frown]

There should be a work around for the problem available soon, I think you can ignore the error, and continue with the install and although 2.0 will not be installed completely its enough to then install 3.0 over the top.

I won't be able to check out the exact procedure until I get a copy of the release version Vista in work.

Thank you Jane

I'm still undecided when to splash out on a new laptop - I may wait for the 'January Sales', and so may have the opportunity to have Vista pre-installed.

I have the official release of vista loaded in virtual pc at the moment

I can test loading fh starting with v2.1 if it would be of any help?

Thanks for the offer Tony,
Always pleased to be able to pass on feedback on new OS's, still waiting for our copies in work, although they should be here soon.

Hi Jane,

As i already had Vista running i decided to give it a go while i had a few minutes spare

v2.1 installed without any error messages, and opened fine

then ran upgrades to v2.3, v3.0 and finally loaded v3.1 upgrade

All went fine, but at the end of each 'upgrade' vista suggested the upgrade hadn't succeeded, but allowed me to confirm it had succeeded. I believe this relates to the upgrades not actually adding a 'new program' entry in the installed programs list (wherever that is now!)

I then copied all my data across, and my gedcom opens fine, and diagram works fine. So looking ok as far as i can tell.

I have lost all my settings though, such as settings to show icons for record flags on diagrams. I copied my all users calico pie folder to userspublicpublic docs (which is where it seems to be from the install)

I've never tried to copy settings, so may have done it wrong?

Well I took the plunge last night and upgraded my laptop to Vista as well

FH now won't display diagrams!

Am working on the problem

Make sure you have a printer installed on the laptop.

Jane said:
Make sure you have a printer installed on the laptop.

Thanks. I have several printers setup, but i changed the default printer and now it works fine!

I was about to re-install - so many thanks for that

Think VERY carefully before upgrading to Windows Vista (or buying a new PC with it on) and thinking you'll be able to use existing hardware etc

My laptop has bog standard built-in sound & bluetooth. Got sound working eventually but bluetooth is a no go so far

More IMPORTANTLY you'll probably find your attached peripherals probably won't work either... Things i have that just aren't supported yet (nor by their manufacturer) are hp all-in-one scanner/printer, usb memory sticks, wm5 mobile phone. Canon Ixus camera won't show up as a drive (but twain driver works but is pretty useless).

Also MS software even has software compatibility issues

So be warned, if you want all these sort of things to work please make sure you can get all the drivers you need from the manufacturer before upgrading & check compatibility of your existing software too...

Things just got a bit better

Tried an old trick of telling windows to search c:windowssystem32 for the drivers and the usb stick, canon camera and my indago sat nav now work fine

This trick also has given me the ability to scan from my hp all-in-one, and printing is also working but with a slight issue (think the hp is working due to bits of old drivers still being around for it to find). Though i can't install the hp imaging software, but i never use this anyway

Will have to mod the registry to make the path part of the default search locations if possible

I found the diagram window with Vista was coming out very small (compared to when i was running xp), and i couldn't make an enlarged size stick when i re-opened FH

But FH v3.1.1 has fixed whatever the issue was, because as soon as i installed it my diagram window looked the same as it used to in XP...

I've mentioned this in the PDA post as well. My Palm will not sync documents with Vista. I used to back up the FH database as a Word document and also via GedStar. Neither work now and there may not be an update until late this year.

Bruce

Sorry if this appears elsewhere but I wonder if any others have had trouble using the online help files with Windows Vista?  The error message suggests that winhlp32exe is required, I think.  I do have a printed copy of the user manual but at times it's convenient to use the help files on screen.  Any help or advice appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

I assume you are on V2?
If so you will need to download the help manager for Win32 help.

See the Knowledge Base [wiki]faq:how_to_install_on_vista[/wiki]

Jane thanks for that but no, I'm running v3.1

3.1 replaced the help, as far as I know only 3.0 has the older help.

Just for information; so far, using the downloads from Windows help program, the online help files in FH can now be diplayed in Vista.

I have recently upgraded to Vista. Everything is fine EXCEPT that none of my linked photo's now appear in my diagrams. Do I really have to re-install them?. I would appreciate any advise as I have hundereds on linked photos.

Vista stores things in different folders as long as the photos can be found on your new computer,just use the work with external file links tool to repair the links to the new file locations there are details in the help and in the knowledge base.