Tech Forum

What does the church plan to do about FHC computers with XP and that are old enough and don't meet the requirements for upgrading to a newer Windows OS? What time frame?

That all depends on

• If this is an authorized FHC and not something set up by local leadership.
• If you've been running the inventory software so CHQ knows what you have and
• If the director has been filing the monthly reports.
• How many machines CHQ has to cascade out to replace old ones.

1. Does anyone know when a Windows 7 OS or higher update will be provided for those XP computers that may qualify?
2. FHC is authorized. Reports have been filed, inventory software is installed and running. Problem - one person at CHQ says our FHC has 2 computers, another says we have 5 (Both are wrong). Is there a specific person in the know our director could call for help? The general help line does not seem to provide help.

The new Windows 7 FHC image DVD is nearly ready. (They've been saying that for a few months now.)

Your STS needs to submit a hardware/software order form, signed by the stake president, to Family History Center Support. List the makes, models, memory, and hard drive sizes of all the computers in the FHC. Those that are fast enough to run Windows 7 will receive enough RAM to upgrade them to a minimum of 2 GB. If you want more memory, you can buy it with your own funds.

Those computers (such as single core P4s) that cannot run Windows 7 will be replaced with cascaded computers. Our stake FHC has 8 computers, and the four P4s were replaced with Dell OptiPlex 780s.

On the same form, you can request a copy of the Windows 7 FHC image DVD.

greypilgrim wrote:Problem - one person at CHQ says our FHC has 2 computers, another says we have 5 (Both are wrong). Is there a specific person in the know our director could call for help? The general help line does not seem to provide help.

I rarely call the FHC support, so this may have changed. But my past experiences with service missionaries haven't been all that good. You may need to work yourself past them. Ask for the report on the computers for your center. Then you'll know which computers are reporting in and which may be AWOL.

The last time I called them, the service missionary said I would have to talk to an "engineer". She told me about my four FHC directors not submitting monthly reports, and said her data didn't match my computer inventory. I think it may have been Lynn Shaw who admitted that their inventory data collection software hadn't been working reliably.
Anyway, the "engineer" answered all my questions, told me what to do, and all is well thus far.

drepouille wrote:The new Windows 7 FHC image DVD is nearly ready. (They've been saying that for a few months now.)

On the same form, you can request a copy of the Windows 7 FHC image DVD.

We submitted our form almost 7 weeks ago for the Windows 7 FHC image. Until reading this, I was beginning to think it might not have made it to the right hands. I'll assume we are on the waiting list.

When you hear that the new image is ready, please let us know. Thank you!

The last message I received about the image DVD was on April 14th.
"We are still trying to get the image finished. As soon as we have it, we will get one sent to you."

One of my FHC that we had submit a hardware/software order form for an imaging Win 7 DVD got an e-mail saying that the DVD had shipped

'Windows 7 ENT v 1 Installation DVD was shipped on 7 May 2014."

We received our installation disc May 9th. I Installed it on the 2 computers that needed to be upgraded yesterday.

For anyone installing this newly created FHC Windows 7 image, be aware that it is a very long install. If you are upgrading more than one computer, I would recommend making an extra copy of the disc for each computer. I had to wait close to 90 minutes before I could eject the disc to start my second install. The disc does include most Windows 7 updates, so getting the Windows Update status current later on was quick.

Other then the extraordinary length, the installation went smoothly on the 2 Optiplex 780's.