Starting FHS from the Windows Desktop

Although the Family History System is a DOS application which is normally started by entering a command at the DOS prompt, it is possible to start an FHS session from the Windows Desktop and return to Windows at the end of the session. It isn't necessary to "boot to a DOS prompt" or start a DOS command session under Windows to run the programs. The procedure for creating a Windows object for starting an FHS session differs for Windows 3.x and Windows 95. The following sections will describe how to accomplish the task in each environment.

Windows 3.x
Objects are created on the Windows desktop by first clicking on the "File" option of the Program Manager menu bar and then clicking "New" in the drop down menu. You will be prompted to identify whether you are creating a Group item or a Program item. You must first create a group item in which to store the icons for running the FHS software. You will be prompted to provide a "Description" (for example "Family History System") and "Group" name (for example, FHS).

When you have finished entering this information, a blank program group window will open on the desktop. You will then want to create an entry in the program group for starting an FHS session. Click on "File" and "New" again and this time choose "Program Item". You will be prompted to enter some "Program File Properties" which include:

After you've finished creating the program entry, you can start a Family History System session by double clicking on the icon representing it. See below for a discussion of other types of entries that you may want to add to the Family History System group.

Windows 95
Objects can be created on the Windows 95 desktop by placing the cursor at the location where you want the object to be placed, clicking the Right mouse button and then clicking "New" on the menu that appears. You can add a "shortcut" that would directly invoke the Family History System, but I would recommend adding a "Folder" which will serve the same purpose as the "Group" item described above under Windows 3.x. As noted before, there are other related "shortcuts" that you will probably want to set up and it is convenient to group them together in a single desktop folder.

When you choose to create a "New"... "Folder", a folder icon will be created at the location of the mouse cursor and you will have an opportunity to type a title for the folder (such as "Family History"). Press Enter when you have finished typing the folder's name.

Double click the folder icon to open it, then place the cursor within the folder and click the right mouse button. Click "New" and "Shortcut" to begin creating an entry for starting an FHS session. For the "command" entry, type the location and name of the FHSINIT.EXE program or use the "Browse" button to navigate to that program. For example, if you have installed the software into a FAMILY directory of your C drive, you would enter: C:\FAMILY\FHSINIT.EXE for the command line. (If you are creating an entry for the Jan 93 update of FHS, use FAMINIT.EXE for the program name.) After typing the command line, click on the "Next" button. Type the label that you want to be attached to the object in the folder (for example, "FHS" or "FHS 97") and click on the "Next" button. Choose a symbol to represent the entry in the folder and click on the "Finish" button. To start an FHS working session, double click the newly created entry in the folder.

Other Entries in the Family History System Group/Folder
There are other "Program Items" that you may want to add to the Family History System folder/group. For instance, if you have installed the HTML documents from the FHS distribution disks and you have a WWW Browser on your computer (such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Explorer), then you might consider creating a program item that would allow you to review the HTML documents. A program item/shortcut for this might have Command Line=C:\FAMILY\$FHSHOME.HTM and Description="FHS HTML". Double clicking on the resulting entry would start the browser and display the FHS Home page from which you can continue browsing the other documents from the FHS WWW support site..

If you have installed the FHS Manual from the FHS distribution diskettes then another possibility would be to create an entry for reading the manual with your word processor or document viewer. This "program item" might have Command Line=C:\FAMILY\MANUAL\97PSEC01.DOC and Description="FHS Manual". Double clicking the resulting icon would start your word processor (or document viewer associated with the suffix ".DOC") for browsing the first section of the FHS manual . You could open other sections of the manual from that working session or you might consider creating separate entries in the program group/folder for each section of the manual.

There are some special properties that you will want to assign to the desktop entry for starting an FHS session. These are described in a separate document.