* Preferences - user or machine?

[DavidNewton]

I am in the process of setting up a new windows user profile and I ran Family Historian while logged in as the new user. It is clear from the appearance of the focus window + property box + source box that some settings are 'all users', such as the customised heading for the property box and other settings are individual such as the position of the source box relative to the property box. I have searched the forums and the help and although the topic has been mentioned on the forum some time ago I cannot find a definitive answer as to which settings are 'all users' and which settings are 'per user'.

Can somebody point me in the right direction please?

David

[tatewise]

Yes, David, see how_to:understanding_scope_of_features|> Understanding the Scope of Features.

[DavidNewton]

Thanks Mike, fortunately I am not trying to set up another user for FH as most of the settings appear to be global. That link will go into my favourites for reference.

Eventually I took the 'brute force and ignorance' method and replaced the new users HKCU\Software\Calico Pie\Family Historian branch with a copy of the original. I hope that is not going to lead to any problems

David

[tatewise]

A slightly safer route would have been to use the Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings Plugin.
Backup on one account and then use Restore Registry Data Keys on the other account.

[DavidNewton]

You're right that would have been safer.

I was intending to set up a user purely for genealogical research with an instance of Internet Explorer containing all my genealogy links in the bookmarks toolbar and nothing else. However, I have found out that as well as IE and FH there are other applications I use which have user specific settings and I'm not sure it is not worth all the effort. I think I'll revert to Plan B and use a browser which allows multiple profiles within the same Windows user account - Chrome, Firefox, basically anything other than IE.

David

[davidm_uk]

Why not just create a separate folder (plus sub folders maybe) in your bookmarks just for the genealogy links?

That's what I have in Chrome, and the folder is in the Bookmarks Toolbar for quick access.

Capture.JPG (23.09 KiB) Viewed 6038 times

[DavidNewton]

Hi David

That is in fact what I have been doing, but probably not as well organised as yours, the nesting is getting a bit deep and my mouse control is not always solid so I do sometimes click the wrong link or meander out of the folder and get nothing.

I know it only saves me one level but it is useful to have the sub-folders of genealogy spread across the bookmarks toolbar. I ended up using Waterfox (a 64 bit version of Firefox), and two profiles one specifically for genealogy and the other a general collection of bookmarks.

David

[tatewise]

I am not quite sure what you mean by "multiple profiles" but all the popular browsers offer much the same bookmarking capabilities.
For example, they all support nested folders, that I use extensively, not just for Genealogy, but all my other topics.
They also support Bookmark Toolbar folders.

With recent versions of Windows you can also drag and pin website addresses to the Task Bar.

Also, from Windows 7, Jump Lists allow website addresses to be pinned to a browser pinned to the Task Bar or Start Menu.

From the perspective of security, I would advise using IE as little as possible, because it is one of the largest targets for malware.
Similarly, use an Administrator Account as little as possible, and perform most routine activities in a Standard User Account.

[DavidNewton]

Regarding multiple profiles:
Internet Explorer only allows one profile per windows user and it is necessary to create new windows user accounts to get extra profiles (which is what I started to do).
Firefox/Waterfox allow as many profiles as you wish within one windows user account; each profile having it's own set of bookmarks, cookies, passwords, history, extensions, add-ons etc. (Firefox and Waterfox share their profiles)
I believe Chrome does a similar thing with each profile linked to a different gmail account.

Browser security is a concern but many of the problems can be circumvented by being careful about clicking links. Always look at the bottom of the screen, in the status bar if you have one, and read the destination of the link before clicking.

David