Comments on: When activation systems go bad

By: QB_neveragain

QB_neveragain — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:22:23 +0000

Intuit are useless. I’ll never purchase from them again.

Maybe this will help some people:

If you have access to the original installation, take a look at /program files/intuit/quickbooks pro/INET/license.qbl.

Open the file with notepad and all of your registration/licence information is here.

Save it somewhere safe as a txt file.

I’m now a very happy Microsoft Office Accounting customer!

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:36:55 +0000

I was running QB2003, but when i moved it to a new PC, it wouldn’t run without the reg-code. Many many calls to Intuit proved futile, with them insisting i pay £300(uk) for a new code. Thanks for the info from Matt – you’ve saved me a whole heap of cash!

By: R K

R K — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:26:27 +0000

My father is running QB 6.0, can you tell me what version he can upgrade to without having to deal with the activation crap?.

He is happy with QB 6.0, the only problem is cut & paste between Office apps. So wonder if QB 8.0 will solve his problem? He does not want to upgrade to 2007 as he thinks it will be a waste of money.

By: david

david — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 21:52:17 +0000

My friend purchased Quickbooks pro 99 years ago and never used it. He gave it to me and i tried to register it. They told me that it was already registered under another name, it has never been registered before. is there anything i can do?

By: Bernard

Bernard — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 17:05:37 +0000

If I have all my licence info can I activate QB when installing on a new machine without calling QB?

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 22:33:48 +0000

I used to work for QuickBooks registration team, and I can tell you a couple of things:

1. I worked there during the QB2003 roll-out. At that time, despite what all the reps told you, I could generate a new registration code for QB programs all the way back to version 4.0. You just had to manually identify which version you were entering the serial number for. For version they supported, the registration program would automatically tell you what version someone was trying to register.

2. If it was an unsupported version, even if the registration code was up on the screen, we were supposed to tell the customer it was unsupported and do our best to sell you an upgrade. If all efforts failed, we were supposed to put you tell you we were going to contact a supervisor to try to get “special dispensation” for you. After leaving you on hold for awhile, we would then come back and tell you we were doing you a great favor and the supervisor pulled some serious strings and accessed a super secret portion of the database and managed to get your old registration number. Aren’t we wonderful?

3. Always write down the registration number. It never changes, no matter what machine it is on. So, if you have version 4.0 running on XP-SP2, the original registration code will work.

4. If you still have the old version running on your old computer, bring the program up and click on the Help menu and then the About Quickbooks menu. It will show you the registration code and serial number right there. Write them down and you can transfer them to the new computer.

It is amazing to me that as popular as QB is, there doesn’t seem to be any cracks out there to generate registration numbers, remove the activation code or allow you to enter your own tax table information! I think that Intuit should be required to make a patch freely available for every version they “Sunset” that removes the need for activation. That is what people are saying Microsoft should be required to do with XP when they drop support for it, so why not Intuit?

By: Vidge

Vidge — Wed, 18 May 2005 22:12:47 +0000

“Hmm…are there any tax/budget/accounting programs that do not pull the “you need an update every x years or else” but allow you to purchase maybe updated packages for tax tables and what-not?”

Peachtree still gives the user access to the tax tables.

By: Vidge

Vidge — Wed, 18 May 2005 22:11:54 +0000

“vidge, do you know of any way to get Quickbooks data into MS Money for Small Business?”

No, sorry I don’t. I’m not familiar with any recent versions of MS Money. Is there an import feature built into the program?

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 18 May 2005 08:52:09 +0000

Yeah, this is quite rediculous. I have had similar experiences with Quickbooks. Enough is enough; I'm not buying their products anymore.

By: charlene

charlene — Wed, 18 May 2005 07:36:43 +0000

Hmm...are there any tax/budget/accounting programs that do not pull the "you need an update every x years or else" but allow you to purchase maybe updated packages for tax tables and what-not?

By: jk

jk — Tue, 17 May 2005 23:04:25 +0000

Update: Intuit apparently checks Technorati where this article appears and a representative has contacted me to help me get the activation problem resolved. I'll update again when this happens.

By: jk

jk — Tue, 17 May 2005 17:26:00 +0000

vidge, do you know of any way to get Quickbooks data into MS Money for Small Business?

By: GRC

GRC — Tue, 17 May 2005 14:43:17 +0000

Intuit also gets you if you use TurboTax in conjuction with QuickBooks. Every couple years, that years version of Turbo Tax will not work with QB if it is a couple years old, forcing you to upgrade QB if you want to be able to export your info to TTax. Great sales/marketing ploy.

By: Vidge

Vidge — Tue, 17 May 2005 12:41:36 +0000

I don’t know what the folks at Intuit are thinking with schemes like this and the one I had to help a client with yesterday. He has been using QBPro 2002 and Intuit ended support for the product 4/30. Although he had purchased the upgrade, he hadn’t gotten around to installing it yet. He ran his payroll for his various stores on Sunday night and after sending them out, he realized the program had not deducted most of the taxes (none except Social Security). He has a valid license for the payroll portion but it seems when Intuit says no more support, they really mean no more support.

Although I am a QB Pro Advisor, I’ve never been a fan of the software. This just makes me even less so.

By: Sheri

Sheri — Tue, 17 May 2005 11:48:10 +0000

You have just described a typical day in the office for me! Now, multiply it by 10 users and a very grumpy boss who doesn't understand technology, nor does he appreciate that I get all of my other work done as well as deal with this! OK, rant over!

By: When Activation Systems Go Bad

When Activation Systems Go Bad — Tue, 17 May 2005 09:45:19 +0000