Frequently Asked Question
Installing Family Historian 7 on a New PC
This guide covers installing Family Historian (FH) 7 on a new PC, or reinstalling it on an existing one, plus how to bring your project data and settings across.
[!note] Operating system Family Historian only runs on Windows 11 or 10. It cannot be installed natively on macOS or Linux (some users run it under Wine, but this is unsupported).
1. Download and install
- Open a web browser and go to: https://www.family-historian.co.uk/install7
- Click the Download Family Historian 7 button.
- If prompted, click Run. If "Run" isn't offered, choose Save, wait for the download to finish, then double-click the file (
install_fh7….exe) to run it. - Follow the on-screen installation prompts.
You do not need to install any earlier version of FH first — Version 7 installs cleanly on its own.
2. Activate and log in
- The first time you run Family Historian after installing, you'll be prompted to log in to your Family Historian account.
- Log in with the same username and password you used for your original install — this is the account your licence is permanently attached to.
- Forgotten your password? Click Forgotten password on the login prompt and a reset email will be sent to you.
- You'll then be asked for your activation code (unless the software recognises this account already has an activation on this exact PC). If the code was emailed to you, copy and paste it (Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V) to avoid typing errors.
3. If you're prompted to deactivate a computer
A standard licence allows 2 simultaneous installations. If you try to activate on a 3rd PC, you'll be asked to choose an existing computer to deactivate.
Deactivation is permanent Once you deactivate a PC, you cannot reactivate it yourself — only Calico Pie support can restore it. So don't casually deactivate a machine you might still want to use; make sure it's genuinely retired first. Before deactivating, ensure any custom settings on that PC (see step 4) have already been backed up.
If you want Family Historian active on more than 2 computers at the same time, you'll need to purchase an additional licence and activate it within the same account — this increases your total allowance rather than replacing it.
4. Transferring your data to the new PC
Project data (your family tree files): Copy the entire Family Historian Projects folder from the old PC to the same location on the new PC. By default this is:
Documents\Family Historian Projects
Custom settings (plugins, fact sets, custom queries, diagram icons, etc.): These are stored in several different locations, so a straight folder copy won't capture everything. The recommended approach is to use the Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings plugin (or the newer …via Windows variant) to collect everything into one backup folder, then restore it on the new PC.
For Internet Data Matches specifically, you can instead use File > Import/Export > Export > User Credentials on the old PC, and File > Import > Import > User Credentials on the new PC.
For the full picture — including media file links, diagram icons, and default startup/backup folder settings that don't transfer automatically — see the FHUG guide: https://fhug.org.uk/kb/kb-article/family-historian-copy-and-migration-guide/
Troubleshooting
- Still stuck: Raise a support ticket at https://support.calico-pie.com