Installing FHS under Windows
The basic steps for installing the Sept 97 update of FHS from files downloaded from this site are contained in a separate document. The purpose of this page is to describe a procedure for installing the software from the FHS distribution diskette(s) which can be ordered from the programs' author.
Installing FHS from Distribution Diskettes The public version of the Family History System is distributed on 1 to 4 diskettes depending upon the media requested. The diskette(s) are labeled B1,(B2, B3, B4). The system extensions are distributed on a single additional diskette labeled X1. The B1 and X1 diskettes have DOS BATch command files for performing various services including the installation of the software. While most of these services must be requested from a DOS prompt, the installation procedure can be accomplished from within Windows.
There are actually several components of the software that can be installed from the diskettes containing the public version of the programs. Besides the programs (and required support files), the diskettes contain the FHS manual, the ROYAL and GENESIS sample files and a set of HTML documents containing most of the content of the WWW support site for FHS. Any or all of these can be installed using the INSTALL.BAT file on diskette B1. This INSTALL procedure can be run under Windows using the "File Run" option of Windows 3.x or the "Start Run" option of Windows 95.
To begin the installation procedure, place the B1 diskette in a drive (which will be assumed to be the A drive in the following). The process for executing the INSTALL.BAT file from the diskette depends upon the version of Windows that you are using:
The command to type for the RUN option is of the form: A:INSTALL xxxxxxx A C where:
- Windows 3.x - click on the "File" entry of the Menu Bar for the Windows Program Manager, then click on "Run" on the drop down menu. Type the INSTALL command with appropriate parameters (described below), then press Enter.
- Windows 95 - click on the "Start" button at the end of the Windows Task Bar, then click on "Run" on the popup menu. Type the INSTALL command with appropriate parameters (described below) and press Enter.
After entering the command, a DOS window will open in which messages will appear describing the progress through the installation procedure. If you received multiple diskettes for the public version of the software, you may be prompted to remove the B1 diskette and place others of the diskettes in the A drive. If you are installing ALL of the components, the procedure will pause at the end of each component's installation and wait for you to press a key to allow it to continue. At the end of the installation process, the DOS window may automatically close or it may be necessary to manually close it by double clicking on an upper corner of the window.
- the initial "A:" directs Windows to look on the A drive for the INSTALL.BAT file,
- the A and C on the right side of the command line indicate that the distribution diskettes are to be placed in the A drive and the software is to be installed onto the C drive,
- and the "xxxxxx" represents one of the options:
- PGMS - to install just the programs and support files into a \FAMILY directory of the C drive. An FHS97.BAT file will also be created in the main directory of drive C to aid you in starting an FHS session from the DOS command prompt. Additional sub-directories of the \FAMILY directory will be created for your family data, work files, transfer datasets and report files.
- MANUAL - to install the sections of the manual into a \FAMILY\MANUAL directory of the C drive. Each section is installed as a separate MS Word document file with name of the form: 97PSECxx.DOC where xx=01,02,...,13 is the section number.
- SAMPLE - to install the sample files into \FAMILY\ROYAL and \FAMILY\GENESIS directories of the C drive. (You could specify ROYAL or GENESIS instead of SAMPLE to install just one of the sample files)
- HTML - to install the HTML documents into subdirectories of the \FAMILY directory on the C drive. The main home page will be installed as file $FHSHOME.HTM of the \FAMILY directory.
- or ALL - to install all of the above
If you also received an X1 diskette with your FHS order then, after the installation of the public version of the software is complete, you should place the X1 diskette in the A drive, invoke the "File...Run" or "Start...Run" option again and type the command: A:INSTALL PGMS A C and press Enter. The programs and files that support the extended options will be copied to the FAMILY directory of the C drive, and after the installation is complete an FHS session will be started so that you can verify that the full set of options is available.
There are additional pages at this site describing how you may run the software from the Windows Desktop and set program properties for the FHS programs.