Quicken Program Won't Open

Question

I have been a Quicken user for many years.  Two weeks ago, the Quicken 2007 program stopped opening and I got the error message "Quicken launcher has stopped working.  A problem caused the program to stop working correctly.  Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available."  Yesterday, I updated to the Quicken 2009 program but still get the same error message.

I am able to open the Quicken 2009 program and data file as a different administrative user on the same computer, but I am the primary computer user and have administrative privileges.  It seems like there must be something wrong with my user profile or administrative privileges.

Please help!

Answer 1

Hi Cindy-S,

Thank you for posting on the forums.

Sorry to hear about the problems that you’re running into. You might have some programs running in the background of Vista that’s conflicting with your Quicken. I’m going to provide with instructions on how to clean boot your machine first.  I’ll also provide you with a link on how to fix your profile.  You might also need to reinstall your Quicken 2009 so please have you’re media and product key to reinstall it.

Let's try clean booting the system to remove 3rd party software and see if that clears up the problem.

Follow the steps below to place your computer in “clean boot” 

·         Click the Start orb on your Desktop

·         Type msconfig in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Continue. 

·         On the General tab, click Selective Startup.

·         Under Selective Startup, click to clear the Load Startup Items check box. 

·         Click the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All. 

·         Click OK. 

When you are prompted, click Restart. 

Now try your Quicken, are you still getting the same error? This will also be the best time to uninstall and reinstall Quicken if you’re still getting the error message.

Now if clean booting your machine did resolve the issue, then see the following Microsoft Article on “Clean boot” and the section “How to determine what is causing the problem” to determine which program or service maybe causing the issue.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796

How to set your computer back, to boot normal:

·         Click the Start orb on your Desktop

·         In the Start Search box. Type msconfig, and then press ENTER.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Continue. 

Click the General tab. 

·         Click Normal Startup - load all device drivers and services, and then click OK. 

·         When you are prompted, click Restart to restart the computer.

If that doesn’t work , here’s a link on how to

Fix a corrupted user profile

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/769495bf-035c-4764-a538-c9b05c22001e1033.mspx

Hope that will do the trick for you. Please post back and let us know your results.

---

JohnD

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

Answer 2

Dear JohnD,

I am having problems similar to Cindy-S.

I have a relatively new Vista PC.

I installed Quicken 2009 and all was working fine.

I tried to open up an old data file (my wife is using Quicken 98) on another pc.

When it began to open, the Quicken program went through the conversion process just fine, and I was able to get the data I needed from her updated file.

When I went back and tried to open my file (which was a native Q 2009 version), at this point I began getting the infamous “Quicken launcher has stopped working.  A problem caused the program to stop working correctly.  Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available” error message.

I tried all of the obvious solutions, and all to no avail. 

When I searched Google & Yahoo for this error, I found that several people had it and they seemed to get it after updating to a new version of quicken.

All seemed to be able to install and run using a different machine or a different profile logged on. 

I was thrilled to come across your Q&A, since all Quicken says is to check pathname for length and inappropriate characters.

I tried the clean boot, and still got the error.

I tried uninstall and reinstall and still get the error.

It looks like I might need a new profile, but I am somewhat reluctant as I am a member of a domain, and not sure if I will be able to actually create the two new profiles and then use one new one to copy data from the new old bad one to the new good one. 

Please advise.

Thanks,

Don B.

Answer 3

I have been having the same problem with Quicken Premier 2009 and I finally fixed it.  Uninstall quicken then reboot and re-install quicken in the root directory (C:\quicken).  When you start the program and it asks to look for updates, ignore it and launch the program without all the updates they have been sending.  Quicken right out of the box works just fine.  Hopefully, they are looking for a fix but for now I am not downloading any updates.

Answer 4

Uninstall quicken then reinstall it and don't let it update.  The problem is somewhere in the updates they have been sending us.  I have 2009 and without the updates there is no problem with the launcher and all my old files are opening with no problems.  The Quicken rep tried to convince me the problem was corrupted data files but I have been too diligent backing things up for that to happen.  Dump the updates and everything will work as advertised.

Answer 5

We faced the same problem with Quicken 2009 and Windows Vista. There was simply no way around the problem, it seemed first. I was able to open the last backup file, however, simply by pointing the backup file in Windows Explorer and by choosing with the right button of mouse to open the backup. I am not sure, if this information is of any good to anybody, but I decided post this anyway, since the Windows error message can be somewhat misleading - the problem may not be as deep as in conflicting services or other deeper system issues. Or if it is, the last backup still was possible to us to open. You can find the backup files in a directory called "backup" in the directory, where your Qdata file is as well.