Frequently Asked Question

A small number of users have reported this problem when upgrading to version 4. In all cases investigated, the problem arose because some version of Family Historian (usually a trial version) had been installed onto a PC, and then a different version (a full version, not an upgrade) had been installed on top of it, without the first version being uninstalled first. This can happen even if version 3 worked fine and the trial version was installed before version 3 - the legacy of confused settings from the two overlapping installations can prevent version 4 running.

Download and run the patch file fhpatch0905.exe (41 KB) to fix the problem. We recommend saving it to the Desktop; after saving, double-click it to run, or if your browser offers to Run or Open the file, you can run the patch that way.

When the patch has been run, if it corrected the error, you should be able to run Family Historian immediately.

If the patch does not fix the problem:

You will need to do a complete uninstall and reinstall of Family Historian 3, and then re-apply the upgrade to version 4. Even if you cannot remember ever installing a trial version, we recommend doing a complete uninstall followed by a complete reinstall in this case. Before uninstalling, make sure you have all the installation programs and registration keys you will need (both version 3 and version 4 have keys - version 2 did not). To uninstall, run 'Add or Remove Programs' on the Control Panel, select Family Historian and click 'Remove'.

When reinstalling, follow the same procedure used to install the software in the first place. For example, if you started with version 2 and then applied an upgrade to version 3, you will need to reinstall version 2 and then re-apply the upgrade to version 3. There is no need to re-apply 'minor' version upgrades. Make sure you run version 3 at least once before applying the upgrade to version 4.