FHC Computers with XP

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.

Agreed. I am working on the second computer now. I just get it started and walk away. I have installed it on a Dell OptiPlex 745 and 755, both with 3 GB and 80 GB.

My biggest concern is what to do with our Dell OptiPlex 740 that has a Canon MS300 film scanner attached via a RATOC SCSI-to-USB adapter. If I can't get it to work with Windows 7, I will just leave that computer running XP. We don't want to lose the film scanner.

drepouille wrote:My biggest concern is what to do with our Dell OptiPlex 740 that has a Canon MS300 film scanner attached via a RATOC SCSI-to-USB adapter. If I can't get it to work with Windows 7, I will just leave that computer running XP. We don't want to lose the film scanner.

A quick Google search shows the RATOC adapter has drivers for Windows 7, however the Canon MS300 does not. Good luck with that one.

Sounds about right. The Digital Imaging System also came with a Canon lide 30 scanner, but that also does not work with Windows 7. However, that scanner is no longer needed now that we have the new Lexmark MX511 MFP.

drepouille wrote:Sounds about right. The Digital Imaging System also came with a Canon lide 30 scanner, but that also does not work with Windows 7. However, that scanner is no longer needed now that we have the new Lexmark MX511 MFP.

Huh? I think we've got a LiDE 30 and it's running on Win7. I don't think the lack of Win7 drivers is typically an issue. What is a very nasty issue is if you're trying to run 64-bit OS and you don't have 64-bit drivers. The only work around is a VM running a 32-bit OS.

I see there are driver for the LiDE 30 for Vista. I'm sure that's close enough to work in Win7. Someone once said that Win7 is Vista with lipstick. So far I've not found anything to refute that.

The standard FHC image is Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. I tried to connect the Canon LiDE 30 into one of those systems, and it said no compatible driver could be found.

drepouille wrote:The standard FHC image is Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

Well then, I think you're toast. Canon never came out with a 64-bit driver for that scanner.

The cascaded computers I got a little less than a year ago came with Win7/32 bit loaded. I can't say as I'm a fan of 64-bit unless you need to break the 4GB barrier. In fact, 64-bit has a higher minimum memory requirement. I don't think there's a single program for use in a FHC that needs or can take advantage of 64-bit.

As for the MS300, I seem to remember a thread on the email list that said to use some other driver. I'd try the MS300II as it has a Win7/64 driver. I have gotten the MS300 to work in Win7. I'm pretty sure it's 32-bit since it's the same machine that has the LiDE 30.

Thank you all for your feedback and especially your patience while we were creating this new FHC image disc.
A few notes: it does take a while to install due to the original size of the image plus the extensive amount of system drivers that needed to be added, adding the core ten languages and having some applications pre-installed (i.e. Chrome, Firefox, IE10). It is more time consuming up-front but less time after it is installed.

This new image will support any system from the Dell Optiplex 740 and newer (Dell, HP, and Lenovo).
We tested this image on the following systems and with all of the different languages:
Dell: 740, 745, 580, 780, 7010, 9010, 9020
HP: 7900
Lenovo: M25, M58, A95, M92Z, M93Z

The two things that are required in order to run:
Dual-layer DVD-ROM (Multi-Reader/Recorder)
64-bit architecture

At this time we are trying to fulfill all of the requests that we have received (we had been holding the requests since January/February due to the image, RootsTech and some new Microsoft license agreements) so please be patient, the discs are coming.

Again, thank you for your feedback. This helps us to know that things are actually working in the field.

I installed the new image on a Dell OptiPlex 755, and it seems to run fine.

Dual-layer DVD? I didn't check the capacity to see if you crammed more than the standard 4.77 GB onto that DVD. Hmmm.

I was trying to figure out the best way to copy this new image DVD. I notice that it is in UDF format, so I wondered if the session was closed, so we are not able to modify its contents.

I also wonder if this new image was set up with Auto Play disabled. I notice that the previous Windows 7 Pro image that was installed on cascaded computers we have received does not have Auto Play disabled, and that concerns me.