Welcome Screen

I am using Quicken 2010 with Windows 7. I cannot find a way to bypass the Welcome screen when I open Quicken. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Thanks,

Gordo

Reply to
none
Loading thread data ...

What do you mean by Welcome Screen? Are you talking about the little window that opens while Quicken is loading, or the first page that shows when Quicken starts?

If you're talking about the first window that you see after starting Quicken you can change it by right-clicking on a tab and choosing the "Start Quicken on [tab name]". So for example if you wanted to start on the Banking tab, just right-click the Banking tab and choose the "Start Quicken on Banking" option to have that tab opened when you start Quicken.

Reply to
Roy Smith

Thanks, but it did not work for me.

By the Welcome Screen, I mean the screen that shows the Quicken logo and reads in part "Welcome to Quicken 2010". It then shows three radio buttons and then has a large button reading "Get Started". Despite the fact that I have to choose the radio button to open an existing file each time I start Quicken, I cannot get it to start with "Banking" for example.

Thanks,

Gordo

Reply to
none

Ok now I understand. It seems like Quicken can't find your data file. Are you storing it in the default location (C:\Users\[user profile]\Documents\Quicken)?

Reply to
Roy Smith

Roy Smith wrote in news:0AHto.252620$ snipped-for-privacy@en-nntp-09.dc.easynews.com:

The layout of the opening screen is saved in the data file. The best way (IMNSHO) of opening a Quicken data file is to double click on the qdf file, or on a shortcut to that file.

However, I would have thought that opening Quicken would automagically load the last used file in the saved configuration. At least that is what happens here (Vista Home Basic). Do you have perhaps stored your quicken.ini file in a protected location, so that Quicken can't write to it? What happens if you rightclick on Quicken.exe and choose run as administrator?

Reply to
Han

Thank you Roy and Han.

I store my Quicken data file in D:\Data\Quicken. I have used this location for Quicken and previously for Money. It worked fine until a few weeks ago. I cannot connect any event to the change in behavior. It is not a protected location. This happens even if I Run as Administrator. It also happens now that I installed version 2011 yesterday.

Gordo

Reply to
none

?Hi, Gordo.

When I install a new Quicken version or update, I let the wizard take care of everything - until the final screen. Then I UNcheck the box that offers to Start Quicken.

Usually I'm just updating, so all my Quicken "tweaks" and settings are still intact on my hard drive. So when I click the new Quicken icon, it starts Quicken with my (only) .qdf file loaded and ready. If that doesn't work, I just browse to my Quicken data files folder and click on the .qdf file there; it starts Quicken with my file loaded.

In your case, my guess is that the file you need to click on would be D:\Data\Quicken\Gordo.qdf - or whatever your data filename is if not Gordo. If your Quicken executable (qw.exe) is in the same location as the former installation, this should work. Once you've verified it, you can create a shortcut/icon to your data file. In my case, that hasn't been necessary; as soon as I click the Quicken icon, it finds my data file because the new Quicken has inherited my MRU list from the prior version.

As I've said here before, my Quicken installation has inherited old (no longer recommended) locations and settings from versions going back to the first Windows versions. Both qw.exe and RCData.qdf are in my E:\QuickenW. Not recommended, but It Works For Me. ; Roy Smith wrote in

Reply to
R. C. White

RC, we must be Quicken twins! ;-) I use the same process you detailed above, and Quicken always opens to the correct file. When I copy my file to compact it, etc., is the only time I use Windows Explorer to make Quicken open the correct file.

Regards,

Margaret

Reply to
Margaret

Margaret wrote in news:i9cfdc$n92$2 @speranza.aioe.org:

RC and Margaret: That works fine if there is "only" 1 qdf file that you need to work with. At times I have had more than 1 dataset (and qdf file-set). Then it is much easier to click on shortcuts to the file you want to open, than to open Quicken and then load the file you want. Therefore, I recommend a shortcut to the dataset/qdf file to click on to launch Quicken.

YMMV!!

Reply to
Han

Any chance you changed the name of your Quicken file? Any chance its name is greater than 8 characters, or contains any special characters?

If so, I would try shortening the name to 8 characters or less, and removing any special characters.

Reply to
John Pollard

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. Sorry to say that none of them worked. My next step is Quicken Support.

Regards,

Gordo

Reply to
none

Well, I found the answer to my problem. Starting at a certain time, Quicken does not tolerate overly long .qdf file names. So, Quicken support had me shorten my file to a small number (5 in my case) characters. Voila! Problem solved.

Thanks,,

Gordo

Reply to
none

?Hi, Gordo.

Filename rules have evolved over the years. Your comment motivated me to get out my antique users' manuals from my original TRS-80 (1977) and its Level I BASIC, Level II Basic (1978) and the original TRS-DOS when floppy disks came along (also 1978).

Level I had no filenames at all. We just had to watch the counter on our music cassette recorder and issue the CLOAD command when it got to the right spot on the tape.

Level II had one-character filenames, such as "D". BASIC was smart enough to just let the tape run past files A, B and C and then load File D when the tape finally got that far.

TRS-DOS adopted the 8.3 pattern: a 1-to-8 character name plus, optionally, a 1-to-3 character extension - separated by a slash (/), not a period. The Directory on the disk reserved exactly 11 places to store the 8 and 3 characters; the / wasn't stored but was inserted by the system when it was needed for display or printout.

I'm not sure which OS actually started the 8.3 pattern. Maybe it was CP/M, the predecessor of MS-DOS. But the pattern persisted until Long File Names (LFN) became available in the 90's. I'm too lazy to look it up, but it was about MS-DOS 6.2. Even after LFNs were allowed, though, MS-DOS created a Short File Name (SFN), also known as an 8.3 filename, for any LFN that did not meet the SFN rules. Even today, in a Command Prompt window, we can use the Dir command (from before Directories became Folders) with the /x switch to see a directory with a column of SFNs before the column of LFNs.

But Quicken has continued to use the 8.3 pattern. I haven't tried a longer name for my QDF. But my standard advice has always been to use short names. Before Q2010, the automatic backup scheme stored all the Quicken component files (.qdf, .qel, .qtx, etc.) by adding a single digit to the base filename, so the default QDATA.QDF became QDATA1.QDF, QDATA2.QDF, etc., in successive weeks. To allow for this behavior, we recommended that data filenames be no more than 7 characters - and 5 was better - and that they not use a digit as the final character. (I got confused early on when I named my file RC, then restarted as RC1 after some computer malfunction (much more common in those days). After a few weeks, I couldn't recall whether RC1.qdf was my new file or the latest backup of my original file. So I stopped using numerals in these filenames.)

Now, Quicken's naming system is much more lenient - and more complex. But it seems to me that a simple naming system is still the best. Five characters sounds good. That's what I use. ; Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. Sorry to say that none of them

Reply to
R. C. White

Its really odd. My longer file name (Gordon Quicken File.qdf) worked until recently, and then it did not. However, if I double clicked that file, it would open Quicken in my checking account. If I put a shortcut to this file on the desktop, it did not work. Ah well and all's well that ends well.

Yes, I remember the good(?) old days of 8.3.

Thanks

Gordo

Reply to
none

BeanSmart website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.