Accessing Online Members-Only Areas from Two Different PCs
More and more Family Tree Maker users are using the program on two different PCs, e.g. on their home PC and their work PC, or on their desktop PC at home and a laptop for research trips.
In order to be able to access members-only areas on Family Tree Maker Online, such as modifying a user home page or accessing Genealogy Library, from two different PCs, follow these steps.
Note: These steps assume that you have FTW already installed on one PC and are able to use the Online button in the program to go online and access any subscriptions you have and/or modify your user home page successfully. If that is not the case, please do not proceed with these steps until everything is working correctly for you on one PC.
Important: The Unique ID number referred to in the steps below belongs to you alone and is used to identify you to our web site. Please treat this number confidentially and do not share it with anybody else. Sharing this number with others will allow them to access and modify your user home page, your online user account, your customer information and more!
If you use Family Tree Maker for Windows version 3.4 - 7.0:
- On the computer that is already set up, start Family Tree Maker. Go to the Help menu and select System Information.
- Click the down arrow next to the Run box in the bottom left corner and select FTW.ini from the drop-down menu. This will open the FTW.ini file in a Notepad window.
- Find the section titled [Online] and look for the line UniqueID= followed by a long number. Write down that number carefully. Double-check to make sure you copied it down correctly!
That is all you need from the first PC. Now go to your second PC that you want to set this up on.
- If you haven't already done so, install FTW on the second PC.
- Now start FTW, go to the Help menu and select System Information.
- Click the down arrow next to the Run box in the bottom left corner and select FTW.ini from the drop-down menu. This will open the FTW.ini file in a Notepad window.
- Find the paragraph titled [Online] and look for the line UniqueID= followed by a long number.
- This number will be different from the one that you wrote down on your first PC. Erase the number and replace it with the number you wrote down from the FTW.ini file on your first PC.
- Now click on the File menu and select Save to save the change you made, then click on the File menu again and select Exit to close Notepad.
- Click OK on the System Information screen in FTW, then exit FTW and start FTW again for this change to take effect.
- When you're back in FTW, push the Online button. FTW should now launch your browser and take you directly to the Family Tree Maker Online web site. The web site will recognize who you are since you were already registered with that unique ID number and set the cookie on the second PC. You now have the same access to the online members-only areas as you have from the first PC because the site is now able to identify you as the same person from either PC.
If you use Family Tree Maker for Windows version 7.5 and higher:
This part is done on the computer where Family Tree Maker is already installed and has access to the members-only areas:
- Highlight and copy the following few lines:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Brøderbund]
"UID"="SomeLongStringofNumbersandLetters"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Brøderbund\Family Tree Maker\UID]
@="SomeLongStringofNumbersandLetters"
- Click Start and then Run. Type notepad on the Open: line and press OK.
- In Notepad go to the Edit menu and choose Paste to paste the information you previously copied.
- Start Family Tree Maker. From the Help menu choose System Information.
- Click the down arrow next to the Run: box and select FTW.ini from the drop-down menu. This will open the FTW.ini file in a Notepad window.
- Find the section titled [Online] and look for the line that begins UniqueID= followed by a long string of numbers and letters.
- Highlight and copy just the long string of numbers and letters (In other words don't highlight and copy the UniqueID= part of that line, just the rest of that line).
- Close the FTW.ini file.
- In the first Notepad screen (the one that starts REGEDIT4), replace the parts that say "SomeLongStringofNumbersandLetters" with the real long string you copied from the FTW.ini file. When you do this, the lines should look something like:
"UID"="32b5487544ed584a548454f" and @="32b5487544ed584a548454f"
- Make sure that you add a blank line to the bottom of this file.
- From Notepad's File menu choose Exit. When prompted, choose to save this file you have created. On the File Name: line enter (including the quotation marks) "UID.reg" and save this file to your Desktop.
Now you must get this UID.reg file you created to your second machine. You can copy it onto a floppy to move it. If both machines have email access, you can create an email and attach the UID.reg file to the message you send to yourself. On the new machine, save the UID.reg file to your Desktop.
This part is done on the second computer:
- Make sure Family Tree Maker is installed, but not started on the second machine.
- make sure no Web browser is started on the second machine (you may want to print these instructions to have them handy).
- Double-click the UID.reg file you saved to the Windows Desktop.
- Click Yes when asked if you want to add this information to your Registry.
- Start Family Tree Maker and go online through the program. You should have access to the same things on your second machine that you do on your first.