Updating H&B 2008 to H&B 2009

Ok, guys, I know everyone is focused on version 2010, but I just bought 2009 for 19.99 on Ebay and would really like to know the nuances of installing it so that I can still run V2008 for cross checking (if possible), or any other danger areas I should be on the watch for. I'm not doing anything very sophisticated but do have lots of investment transactions and other types going back about 10 years.

There has been one big bug in saving reports that has been carried over for several years. I can't describe it precisely but it has to do with ending up with 2 reports saved with the same name, instead of the newer version replacing the older. Then you lose both when you delete either one of them. Has this been fixed in 2009?

jo

jo: There used to be an annoying bug where a new report was created when I modified an existing report. I used to toggle between "Customize creates new" and "Customize modifies" to have Quicken ONLY modify. I can't recall having to do that in months, so that quirk must have been corrected in Q2009, or one of the updates. This may not be the same bug you are experiencing. Bob

I refrained from answering because although I have Q2009 RPM, I only use it for testing.

Even though sometime around Q2006, Quicken started defaulting to deleting older versions when newer versions were installed, there has always been a way to prevent that: hold down CTRL+SHIFT when clicking on the first clickable button you get during install.

Up until Q2009, having two versions installed produced only relatively minor glitches.

Having Q2009 installed with any other versions creates more significant glitches, including actually changing the version level (ie: Home & Business could get changed to Deluxe); and interferring with features that utilized the internet. The most recently installed version would be "relatively" unphased, the other version could be severely hampered.

Quite a few experienced users posted here when Q2009 came out, saying they didn't find any serious flaws. Some users did find such flaws, though to the best of my knowledge and recollection, none were "reproduceable", leaving open the question of the cause of the problems.

There have been 6 releases to Q2009 so far, and one more is known to be on the way soon ... before the end of the month, it is suggested by Intuit. So certainly some problems in Q2009 have already been addressed; and although I believe the main purpose of R7 will be to incorporate the new Money Converter directly into Q2009, I am unusually hopeful that a couple more problems will be fixed when R7 is installed.

I would also expect some users to run into problems if they use Vista or Windows 7 ... not necessarily due to any bugs in Quicken or the os, but because Vista and Windows 7 are different from, and stricter in granting access than, Windows XP. And the fact that, I believe, there are still some devices that do not have bug-free Vista/Windows 7 drivers.

I can't tell you whether there were any improvements to this problem in Q2009, but it is not totally solved: you can still see the problem, if you Save to user created folders. You can avoid the problem by not saving reports to any user created report folders [always Save to "None (My Saved Reports)".]

Thanks for such a complete answer, John. I seem to have arrived at the way of avoiding the report problem that you described by accident. It was so frustrating going thru trying to diagnose the pattern, but finally I managed to get enough control over the reports that I use all the time that I could ignore the underlying problem.

Do I understand you correctly to mean that by installing V2009 (in a separate folder), I run the risk of really screwing up the functionality of v2008? Assuming I don't experience catastrophic problems with V2009, I wouldn't need to keep the earlier version very long, but it sure would be nice to have it for at least a couple of days. Figuring out exactly which reports I would need to run prior to upgrading in order to cross check the validity of balances, transactions, etc might tax my brain. It's a lot easier to be able to flip back and forth between versions if you suspect a problem.

I remember you giving me the keystroke combination for installing without deleting the previous version last year but have a vague recollection that I did have some problems using V2008 with V2006 still installed. Wish I had written down exactly what they were.

For better or worse, I am still on XP so that eliminates any Vista problems, but my computer is such a dinosaur that I suspect the upgrade will run even slower than V2008. I've gotten accustomed to Quicken's pace on my machine but wouldn't be ecstatic to see it worsen, but I have noone to blame but myself for taking so long to get a decent system

jo

Hi Bob,

I think that is at least part of the bug. As John describes it below, the trick is to not use user folders. Kinda defeats any attempt to organize oneself, but at least I can still operate. It would be nice to find it fixed in v2009.

jo

I only had Q2008 and Q2009 on the same machine for a very short time, and it was a long time ago, so I don't recall the specifics. But yes, you can lose functionality (Premier could become Basic, for example). The loss is temporary; it lasts until you reinstall the version that lost functionality (and it may not happen every time). It's a sort of catch-22 situation, and it's the last version installed that gets the better treatment (though I believe that with two versions installed, there will always be some glitches).

I wouldn't hesitate to try it out, I don't think you have anything to lose; though I confess, all my multiple installs have occured on a machine I only use for testing.