Question - old software

[Goromoff]

Fount Of All Knowledge question.

Younger brother used a program to work with family history but now cannot
access it. This is due to him having to leave it for a while to attend
other things, computer replacement, upgrades, illness etc etc. His
program is stuffed with years and years of family history stuff.

I have larded him with the existence of the wide spectrum of knowledge
here and the willingness to help, so I wonder if I may tap into this
please?

There are two questions (separate programs).
Here are his words:
Quote:

The program is SoftKey’s Family Tree for Windows 3.1 & 95 (I told you it
was from the Ark!)©1996 TLC Properties Inc., a subsidiary of The Learning
Company Inc. Published by GSP in partnership with Personal Soft. ©1996
CompuServe Incorporated.

That’s all I can tell you except that now Win 7 32-bit doesn’t recognise
the file types. If you can get some joy for me from your friends it
would be a real boon. I’ve tried the Net for solutions, but all I get
from websites offering me access to obsolete file types, is advertising
(which pisses me off) and instructions to download software to make my
computer run faster (which I won’t download without some sort of
endorsement – which they are in no position to give).

Once your friends have solved my file problem (I hope and pray) if they
can tell me how to get Microsoft PictureIt 2002 (English Version) working
in Win 7 32-bit (using language that a complete computer numpty can
understand, i.e. minus the technical jargon, I think I might be prepared
to visit every one of them and kiss their boots.
unquote

Any help/advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Thanks,
Goro

[Oliver]

Post by Goromoff
Any help/advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Windows 7 will not recognize the file because Windows does not include
Family Tree software. Your son would have to install modern software
which will hopefully recognize the file and import it. Or sign up for
one of the online services which also allow you to import files made by
other genealogy programmes. Fortunately, many of the genealogy
programmes use a standard type of file format - the most common type is
GEDCOM. And I don't know why am trying to answer you because there are
people with far more knowledge of this sort of stuff than I have :-)

[Oliver]

Post by Goromoff
Any help/advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Sorry Goro, I should have referred to your brother, not your son, in my
earlier post.

I see there is a site offering a paid-for conversion service for this
sort of thing - but the site also includes some potentially useful
information of older programmes and file types:

http://www.my-history.co.uk/acatalog/Data_Conversion_Service.html

[Les]

Post by Goromoff
Fount Of All Knowledge question.
Younger brother used a program to work with family history but now cannot
access it. This is due to him having to leave it for a while to attend
other things, computer replacement, upgrades, illness etc etc. His
program is stuffed with years and years of family history stuff.
I have larded him with the existence of the wide spectrum of knowledge
here and the willingness to help, so I wonder if I may tap into this
please?
There are two questions (separate programs).
The program is SoftKey’s Family Tree for Windows 3.1 & 95 (I told you it
was from the Ark!)©1996 TLC Properties Inc., a subsidiary of The Learning
Company Inc. Published by GSP in partnership with Personal Soft. ©1996
CompuServe Incorporated.
That’s all I can tell you except that now Win 7 32-bit doesn’t recognise
the file types. If you can get some joy for me from your friends it
would be a real boon. I’ve tried the Net for solutions, but all I get
from websites offering me access to obsolete file types, is advertising
(which pisses me off) and instructions to download software to make my
computer run faster (which I won’t download without some sort of
endorsement – which they are in no position to give).
Once your friends have solved my file problem (I hope and pray) if they
can tell me how to get Microsoft PictureIt 2002 (English Version) working
in Win 7 32-bit (using language that a complete computer numpty can
understand, i.e. minus the technical jargon, I think I might be prepared
to visit every one of them and kiss their boots.
unquote
Any help/advice would be gratefully appreciated.
Thanks,
Goro

Depending on the version of Win 7 32-bit you may be able to run
the programs in compatibility mode.

Right click on the program short cut and if there is a tab marked
<Compatibility> select it then tick the box for compatibility and
choose Windows 95.

This worked for me on a pre 2000 accounts program.

Les