Tech Forum

Hi everyone. Our FHC has some new all-in-one IBM PC's running Windows 7. They came with virtually nothing installed on them. I know that for clerk PC's there are certain programs to install such as MLS, OpenOffice, etc. What about for FHC PC's? Is there a list somewhere?

First of all, I'm assuming this is an official FHC, not something locally created. (An official FHC will have it's own unit number.)

Go to https://familysearch.org/remote/centers.html. Install LANDesk. Once installed, you'll get a list of programs within LANDesk that you can download and install.

By in large, this is a conversation you need to have with the Director. He/she may want everything, or they might only want a sub-set, as they don't want to try and support everything.

If this is not an official FHC, then your stake needs to have a look at it's pocket book. By in large, they're on their own. A few of the software vendors will license for an unofficial one. But by in large, it will just be a computer lab for those who do not have computers at home. You will not have special access to websites such as Ancestry.

Yes, this is an official FHC. Thanks for the info. The LANDesk software came installed on the systems. I'll check out what's available and discuss it with the director.

From LANDesk, we've found these are the ones that are almost critical, many users of the FHC will want to try some of these before buying, others who may not be able to afford them will find them useful when working their databases with nFS/Family Tree.

Ancestral Quest 12.1 (after install, check for updates and install those)
Legacy 7.5
Family Insight (latest update is 2012.5.5 and it may need to be updated after you get it from LANDesk)
RootsMagic 5 (Open software after installing from LANDesk, it will say if it needs to be updated).
Arkiv Digital. Get from fhc.familysearch.org, it's not on LANDesk but being on that other link it is still OK to get that way. Replaces Genelines 2, Genelines was bought out last year and this is the new package that replaced that, good especially if you have a lot of patrons that need to look up Swedish ancestors.

Don't install MSIE 9 yet, use version 8, and install Chrome as it self-updates saving you headaches that way. IE 9 is quite buggy still and does not quite work with FamilySearch properly in some matters.

Install FamilySearch Indexing on all machines, the new patron check-in form mentions Indexing now as a reason for visiting the center, they sent that as a PDF to directors yesterday.

Be sure the latest versions of Flash, Adobe, and Java are on the machine, Chrome will update at least Flash on a regular basis so that may be less of an issue if you run Chrome browsers. While Flash is less of an issue with FS than before, it is still needed by some other family history websites.

One more item, there is a 'virtual machine' that displays the Scottish OPR data and installs the whole database on the machine, that's still only 600mb anyway, won't even need the CD after that, and if more than one person wanted to view it there wouldn't be any wait for that because it would be on each machine. It's one of the 'FamilySearch' items and says 'virtual machine' in one of the columns on LANDesk. If you have less than a 7mb connection, you'll need to do them one at a time due to the file size stated.

If Sophos isn't on any of the machines, it can be downloaded from LANDesk. However, it should be there, look for it on the list of installed programs and if not there, get it from LANDesk.

One more thing, grab the FHL Favorites file from LANDesk too, it's a an under 2mb file eavailable elsewhere and updated every six months by the FHL staff. Then be sure it shows up in the favorites area for each browser installed on each machine. Will prove very handy for patrons.

JamesAnderson wrote:Ancestral Quest 12.1 (after install, check for updates and install those)
Legacy 7.5
Family Insight (latest update is 2012.5.5 and it may need to be updated after you get it from LANDesk)
RootsMagic 5 (Open software after installing from LANDesk, it will say if it needs to be updated).
Arkiv Digital. Get from fhc.familysearch.org, it's not on LANDesk but being on that other link it is still OK to get that way. Replaces Genelines 2, Genelines was bought out last year and this is the new package that replaced that, good especially if you have a lot of patrons that need to look up Swedish ancestors.

This is the part you may want to talk over with the director. While it's nice for the patrons who have them at home, it's confusing for the staff on what to recommend or to know how to help the patron in all those programs.

JamesAnderson wrote:Be sure the latest versions of Flash, Adobe, and Java are on the machine, Chrome will update at least Flash on a regular basis so that may be less of an issue if you run Chrome browsers. While Flash is less of an issue with FS than before, it is still needed by some other family history websites.

I'm not sure, but I think Chrome only updates an internal copy of Flash. You'd still be stuck with updating the "regular" install. It now does come with a updater, but I think it still leaves old versions behind. Keeping all those programs up to date is a pain. At least with Microsoft, you know when "Patch Tuesday" is coming and can make sure everything gets done.

Great info, guys. Thanks!

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but I'm curious to know how this has changed now that we are using Tivoli, etc. Is there a Wiki page somewhere that has all the information for imaging, software, hardware, etc? Or is it just best to search the forums?
Thanks

You can start with this page. LANDesk is on the way out, but it still may be needed for somethings. For now, I'd install it and Tivoli and let the scripts uninstall it if that's what they want to do.

Most everything else is installed via on of those two managers.

Reading over the thread, I don't see anything that has been outdated except maybe some versions are old.

There are a couple of the third-party software items that have older versions that were never updated on either LANDesk or Tivoli. Especially true of the Ohana products.

Once installed if you choose to, go to the Ohana Software page (ohanasoftware.com) and go to Downloads. Get the latest versions there, particlularly of Family Insight.

RootsMagic 6 is not on either LANDesk or Tivoli yet, so you'll have to at least get version 5 and wait for Tivoli to get RootsMagic 6.

There will be a series of updates for the third-party products next year once the Family Tree APIs are released, the time from now until release is not fully known, I've heard from a few weeks to two months, but they are working to have it out to the third-party product providers sooner rather than later.