A genealogist's view of Windows 7 -- upgrade or not?

In teaching classes to genealogists I have found that they are mostly people who can be shocked by the high price of a software program costing $29.95. So it is unlikely that these same people who think that it is outrageous to actually pay for a genealogy database program, would be anxious to upgrade their operating system, especially when the retail price of Windows 7 runs from $50 for the Windows 7 Home upgrade to over $200 for the Windows 7 Ultimate version. Furthermore, if you upgrade from Windows XP you need to manually reinstall your programs after you install Windows 7, according to the instructions that come with the program. If you upgrade from older versions of Windows, such as 2000 or perish the thought, Windows 98, it is likely that you will have to upgrade some of your other software programs as well. Upgrading can be very time consuming and expensive.

Windows 7 is advertised as your PC simplified. Whatever that means. It is certainly not simple. I am installing the Windows 7 Ultimate version on an iMac using Parallels Desktop and I would characterize that process as anything but simple. Installing Parallels Desktop on the iMac is simplicity itself. It took about three minutes. Installing Windows 7 has taken me three days and I still do not have some major functions working. These problems are not issues with Parallels Desktop or the iMac, they seem to be purely Windows 7 issues.

In future posts, I will discuss how the various genealogy programs run on the iMac with Windows 7, but that is another day. Just for information sake, I have loaded Personal Ancestral File, RootsMagic 4, Ancestral Quest and Legacy 7. I did have extensive problems getting Legacy 7's Geographic Database to load but the other programs seem to load and to be functioning without problems.

First impressions are that Windows 7 is a remake of Windows Vista with some of the rough spots smoothed over. It also looks like Microsoft decided to try and copy a few Macintosh OS X features and not too successfully.

Out of the box, the program came with two disks, one for 64-bit software and another for 32-bit software. There is free telephone and online support, but nothing in the materials that come with the program tell you how or why you should install either 64-bit or 32-bit. I happen to know that the iMac is a 64-bit computer so I chose to install the 64-bit program. I guess I will figure out sometime in the future if that is a problem. Obviously, if you buy a new computer and it comes with Windows 7 you don't have to worry about this problem.

Installing the program took longer than I expected. Plus, as a bonus, once I got it loaded, every time the program starts, I get the standard old DOS based Windows warning that the program was not closed properly and asking if I want to start up in protected mode and other things. This reminds me that the apple never falls far from the tree.

OK, so far, I am not that impressed. It seems to have most of the Windows Vista problems with a few of its own. As to being faster, that is likely due to running the program on an iMac, which makes all of the programs run faster because of the speed of the processor. One of the features highlighted in the skimpy installation manual is the Windows Taskbar. I have yet to get that feature to operate consistently. So far, it appears and disappears randomly. The small manual shows you how to "pin" a program to the Taskbar, but doesn't tell you either why this is needed or any benefit from doing so.

At this point, and of course I might change my mind as I get further into this program, I would suggest waiting to upgrade from Windows XP until you find a really good reason to do so. As to upgrading from Windows Vista, why not? It might be better.

Obviously, more later.

Can you do genealogy on a Mac?

One of the most re-occurring questions asked me at the Mesa Regional Family History Center involves running genealogy programs on a Macintosh computer. Very frequently, during a class on Ancestral Quest Family Tree or RootsMagic 4, someone will ask if the programs can be run on an Apple Computer. The answer is yes, but with qualifications and the solution is not necessarily simple.

There are three main stream solutions to running genealogy programs on the Mac:

1. Purchase a Macintosh based genealogy program.
2. With newer Macintosh computers with Intel Processors, run Boot Camp and install a Windows partition.
3. Use a program like Parallels Desktop on Intel based Macintosh Computers to run PC based programs.

You can avoid the whole issue by using a Macintosh based genealogy program. There are many, but the leader is Reunion 9 from Leister Productions. For a partial listing with links see About.com Genealogy.

In June of 2005, Apple announced that it would begin producing Intel-based Macintosh computers in 2006. Since that time all of the Macintosh computers sold now use some type of Intel processor, in some cases the same or very similar processors used in many Windows based PCs. The two options above only became a practical reality with this introduction. It is true, that there were Macintosh programs that would run PC program in emulation but they never gained a very big product base and were by and large difficult to use.

With the newer processors the Macintosh can run a Windows based operating system. The Boot Camp program creates a separate "partition" or portion of the hard drive and then you can load a Windows operating system. Yes, you do have to own a copy of whatever level of operating system you install, Windows XP, Vista or 7. This solution works very well. The resulting Windows portion of the Macintosh runs as well or better than many PCs. The main drawback is that to use the PC you have to quit your Macintosh programs and operating system and reboot into Windows. It is more like owning two different computers in one box.

The last solution is Parallels Desktop. This program creates a Virtual Machine on the Macintosh which with the addition of your copy of a Windows operating system, becomes a PC. Early on, this solution was slow and clunky. On one of the faster new Macintosh's with the new Parallels Desktop 4, it is amazing. The main drawback is that running a PC on your Mac is like towing a house trailer with your Porche. You might be able to do it, but you better have a good reason to do it.

In short, you can run almost any PC program made, including virtually all of the popular genealogy programs on a Macintosh. If you really want to do so.

Stay tuned for my review of the new Windows 7 and why you might want to upgrade (or not).

First Salt Lake Valley Temple to gain complete access to New FamilySearch

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Draper, Utah Temple District will be the first in the Salt Lake Valley to have full access to New FamilySearch. The roll-out will be complete for the Draper Temple District on November 2, 2009. This leaves the only the three remaining Salt Lake Valley Temple Districts without online access to the program.

All members in the following temple districts have full access to the Web site:

• Twin Falls Idaho
• Monticello Utah
• Rexburg Idaho
• Manti Utah
• Vernal Utah
• Logan Utah
• Boise Idaho
• St. George Utah
• Idaho Falls Idaho
• Provo Utah
• Ogden Utah
• Mount Timpanogos Utah
• Bountiful Utah

This staged release of the New FamilySearch program to LDS Church members has taken over two years and meanwhile the program has been modified and updated numerous times. Although the program has not been modified as much as anticipated, it is still far more developed than the first releases.

Preview -- a genealogist looks at Windows 7

While my copy of Windows 7 has been ordered and is on its way, I have been looking at the reviews. Bear in mind that the previews and early reviews for Windows Vista were all over hyped, I began looking to see if the glow of the initial release of Windows 7 had begun to dim. I remember the introduction of Windows Vista and clearly recall that there were multiple sources in the genealogical community that were panning the program and telling users to wait to upgrade. I was one who waited so long that I never did upgrade my PC from Windows XP.

Genealogy programs, unlike high speed games and intense graphics programs like video editing or 3D rendering, do not get perceptively faster with a newer operating system. Many of the most popular genealogy programs are relatively text based and do not rely on either huge amounts of RAM memory or super fast computers to run perfectly well, thank you. Even with tens of thousands of names, the venerable Personal Ancestral File will load in a few seconds with a moderately fast computer. I have a five year old Pentium 4 computer and a PAF file with almost 7000 names opens in less than a blink of an eye.

One of the most touted features of the new Windows 7 is its faster performance. OK, if PAF opens in a blink of an eye, will the new program take half a blink. How fast is fast? And do I need any more speed? Well, as a matter of fact I do. One of the challenges driving my upgrade to a newer operating system is the hope that my huge collection of graphics files will load and sort more rapidly. Even with Picasa, sorting the image files is a slow process and using Picasa's new people identifier is positively painful. Advertisements for Windows 7 claim increased speed, well we shall see.

Many of the features supposedly coming with the new Windows 7 have no relevance to genealogy or how I work with my computer at all. I do not plan on purchasing a multi-touch computer so the fact that Windows 7 will support gestures, handwriting and voice, does not make me want to change to the program.

On the other hand, improved navigation to find folders and files would be a benefit and an improvement. Coming as I do from the Apple Macintosh environment, the Windows search function has always seemed slow and very clunky. Improvement in searching would be a positive feature.

Windows Vista was a very incompatible program. However, it is one of the advertised aims of Windows 7 to be compatible with the same accessories and applications as Windows Vista. As a Windows XP user, why doesn't that claim impress me? Obvious, it appears that the problems I may have had with Windows Vista are certainly going to show up again in Windows 7.

Since I don't use Windows Explorer much now, nor do I use the Internet Explorer of whatever number (I use Firefox), the fact that the new Windows 7 comes with an upgraded Windows Explorer is no great draw.

So what does this all mean? When I load Windows 7 into Parallels Desktop on my iMac, I will be looking to see if there is any perceptible difference from my Windows XP experience and if so, how will it impact all of the genealogy programs I depend upon for my research and work? Looking forward to when the program arrives...

Searching the Family History Archives

FamilySearch's Website has a tab for "Search Records." This tab has pulldown menu items for both Record Search and the Family History Archives. In the menu, Record Search is called the "Record Search Pilot." Unfortunately, the Family History Archives name does not appear anywhere on the menu list. The item is called "Historical Books."

The search screen on the Family History Archives is very basic; you can search on surname, author and title. There is another option to search all which includes a check box for searching the full text of the documents. There is also a button for browsing the entire collection or just certain types of materials, such as the book collection or gazetteers.

What you may overlook is a link to "Advanced Search." Clicking on this option takes you to the search page for the entire BYU Libraries Digital Collections. You can then choose whether to search all of the collections in the digital archives or just a specific collection. The search fields give you the ability to search for:

• All of the words
• The exact phrase
• Any of the words
• None of the words

Judicious use of these four options with allow you to be very specific in your search results. If you are looking for a particular person, you may wish to enter his or her name in the exact phrase search box. But remember that you get what you ask for. You may wish to try searching on the full name as well as any nicknames or shortened variations. If your person was a blacksmith and not the carpenter of the same name, you may wish to exclude "carpenter" from the search in the "None of the words" field.

If you notice above the fields there are further deliminators, that is you can search by selected fields, proximity or by date. Just because you do not find the information or person you are looking for on the first try, does not mean the information is not in the collections. Try again and again with different variations in your search terms.

Whenever you use a search function, it is a good idea to try words in a different order. You may also want to start your search with as few words as possible and add words if you get too many responses. Searching is part art and part science. It also takes some measure of luck, so good luck in your searches.

Milestone for Family History Archives

The BYU Harold B. Lee Library, Family History Archives has reached a milestone of over 50,000 items, 50,092 to be exact. To quote from the site:

The Family History Archive is a collection of published genealogy and family history books. The archive includes histories of families, county and local histories, how-to books on genealogy, genealogy magazines and periodicals (including some international), medieval books (including histories and pedigrees), and gazetteers. It also includes some specialized collections such as the Filipino card collection and the “Liahona Elders Journal.” The books come from the collections of the FamilySearch Family History Library, the Allen County Public Library, the Houston Public Library – Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research, the Mid-Continent Public Library – Midwest Genealogy Center, the BYU Harold B. Lee Library, the BYU Hawaii Joseph F. Smith Library, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Church History Library.

This collection of indexed books and other documents is entirely searchable. It continues to increase in size at the rate of 1500 to 2000 items a month.

To upgrade or not, that is the question for genealogists

I ordered my copy of Windows 7 and I am proceeding with my plan to put Parallels Desktop on my iMac and see how it works with all my genealogy programs. I am presently regularly running about six or eight or more, genealogy programs and will report on how each one works. I have many more other types of programs, as well, and I will try to load all of them and report on how they work. Meanwhile, I usually upgrade all my programs regularly as updates become available, so most of the programs should work. Tune in as I publish the results from this experiment. If all goes as planned I will transfer all my work from the five year old or so PC I now use to an iMac. If that scenario doesn't pan out, I will probably go to a newer PC.

Considering the bad reception of the previous Microsoft operating system, Vista, I am pretty sceptical of the initial hype for Windows 7. This time I want to see for myself before I am committed with a system trying to work with a clunker.

As I discussed in my last post, one of the most important factors compelling an upgrade of the computer hardware or software is the impact of graphics and the perceived slowing of the computer. Early in the computer years, the decision to upgrade was simple, a new computer system came on the market. Every time there was a new system, the increase in computing speed and memory increased so rapidly that the advantage of moving to a new upgraded system was obvious. However, a few years ago, the basic computer systems became so fast and powerful, that few people could actually observe an advantage. Even though the new systems came out with more memory and faster processors, none of those improvements heavily impacted the genealogy programs which were for the most part, text based and rather simple.

More slowly, the genealogy database programs began incorporating ways of attaching media files to genealogical records. Even the venerable Personal Ancestral File in version 5.2 supported attached media files. At the same time, digital photos got larger and larger and graphic files became more and more available. My PC, that was perfectly adequate five years ago, now take five minutes to boot up and two to five minutes to open iGoogle. I am sure there people out there who would tell me I could add memory or whatever to increase the capacity of the computer and prolong its life. Let's just say that I did all that. I am to the point that I recognize that any significant increase in the speed of the computer is going to require a faster or more efficient processor, not just add-ons to my existing computer.

One countervailing issue to rapid upgrades is the cost of upgrading software. It is sometimes a shock to computer owners who buy a new system to learn that they also have to upgrade all their software to run on the new processor. The software upgrades can easily cost more that the computer system itself. We have kept computers long past their real useful life for this reason alone.

So now I will do what I have done dozens and dozens of times in the past. Test out a new operating system and a new hardware configuration. Although those who say they know claim that the new high end Apple processor, a quad-core Intel Core i5 or Core i7 “Nehalem” processor in the 27-inch iMac, really is over kill but experience tells me that programmers will always use all of the available hardware if given the chance and that over the next couple of years it is likely that many programs will not just run on such a processor, but will begin to require one.

Waiting for the Federal Express delivery of my new Windows 7 software. (I already have Parallels Desktop and an iMac).