Dear Linda (and all), As I said in my previous email: I got at least one of my Ancestry CD's to work. This was a surprise as I have tried several times before, on different machines. The current one actually let me install AV.2 which is what you need to view the files. (There's an AV.3 somewhere on one of my other discs but I haven't tried that yet. It's the Salop CD's that have an incompatible programme (too old a version of Visual Basic I think). They ran on XP but nothing later. It Will install, but won't run. Thanks once again to everyone for their much appreciated help :) Best Wishes, Penny On Sat, Jan 9, 2016 at 3:42 PM, Linda <[email protected]> wrote: > Rather than Archive Books, the old Ancestry Data CD's probably won't > work because they needed a specific program to run them. That was > never updated after Ancestry put all its info online and could make you > pay to get it. > > > Thank you to John Hanson who gave so much time and effort to digitize > so many records for all of us to use. > > On Sat, 9 Jan 2016 07:03:02 -0000, John Hanson via wrote: > > I was quite surprised about an hour after I sent my message to > get an email > from Rod Neep (the founder of Archive CD Books) which contained the > following which I am forwarding with his blessing > > "What you stated here in your reply is spot on! As the founder of Archive > CD > Books I can tell you (and you may forward this to the mailing list if you > wish) that all of the CDs contained simple PDF files, and any PDF reader > can > be used to view the contents. There is no special software required, and > none is included on the CDs. They will run on any old PC right up to > current > Windows 10 operating systems, and also Apple Mac computers. > > I am no longer involved in Archive CD Books, as I retired many years ago, > but the principle of the CDs that I established is that they could run on > any computer that is capable of displaying PDF files. Historically, the > earlier CDs did not have an "autostart", (automatically playing when they > were inserted into the CD drive), although some later ones may have. > > It is true that CDs can sometimes degenerate with age depending on storage > conditions, and the way that they have been handled, and you are correct in > saying that the best thing to do is to copy all of the files (and sub > folders) from each CD into its own individual folder on a hard drive. If > the > original poster can see the files on the CD using explorer then the > contents > of the CD should be fine! If the computer has a PDF reader installed (and > most modern ones come with one) then all that is needed is to double click > on the PDF file to make it run" > > Regards > John Hanson > Researcher, The Halsted Trust > Website - www.halstedresearch.org.uk > > > > > > :-+-: :-+-: :-+-: :-+-: :-+-: :-+-: :-+-: > > Buy or sell family research items on the GEN-MAT-UKI mailing list. No > fees! > > The list's administrator can be contacted at [email protected] > > :-+-: :-+-: :-+-: :-+-: :-+-: :-+-: :-+-: > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >