Quicken in many places in the directory

ilyaz

I have a subscription to Quicken. Recently, cleaning the directory on my Win10 PC, I found that Quicken appears in several places.
In Documents, there is a Quicken folder and GPUCach subfolder.
On C drive, the Quicken is in 3 places:
in Program Files (x86), Quicken folder and AnswerWorks etc. subfolders;
in ProgramData, Quicken folder and 0027, 2102 etc. subfolders;
on C drive, Quicken folder and Backup, Config, INET, Q07 Files, etc. subfolders.
Is this normal to have Quicken in 4 places? Can I somehow organize it and reduce the number of places for better management?

studpup

Well, Windows installs the app in Program Files, keeps its data in ProgramData, and your personal data is in Documents\Quicken which is a shortcut for C:\Users\username\Documents\Quicken. In short, that's the way windows arranges things so not much to clean up, and you'll probably be unhappy if you rename/delete/move the program files. If you already did, consider uninstalling and reinstalling quicken. 

Chris_QPW

Well you can uninstall AnswerWorks if you are using the latest version of Quicken, because it was used for displaying help, but they have recently changed to using a built "web based" solution that doesn't require this extra program.

As for the rest you have to understand that "Quicken" is composed of:

1. The program files, which have to be separated from any files that need to be changed.  This was setup my Microsoft this way to help fight viruses.
2. Configuration files that are shared by all users, like for instance the financial institution URLs.
3. Configuration files that affect the user level.  As in user 1 using Quicken can have a different setting for something than user 2.
4. Your data file(s).  Which tend to be stored in the Documents folder.
5. Windows registry.  Quicken doesn't use the Windows registry that much in comparison to some programs, mostly because it started out before it existed and so the configurations that might go there in some programs go into configuration files in #2 or #3.  And note that the Windows register actually has user level and system levels too.

Note that the GPUCache and Log files that appear where your data files really shouldn't be there.  They should be in location #2 or #3, these are showing up in the wrong spot because of bugs.

studpup

Well, Windows installs the app in Program Files, keeps its data in ProgramData, and your personal data is in Documents\Quicken which is a shortcut for C:\Users\username\Documents\Quicken. In short, that's the way windows arranges things so not much to clean up, and you'll probably be unhappy if you rename/delete/move the program files. If you already did, consider uninstalling and reinstalling quicken. 

Chris_QPW

Well you can uninstall AnswerWorks if you are using the latest version of Quicken, because it was used for displaying help, but they have recently changed to using a built "web based" solution that doesn't require this extra program.

As for the rest you have to understand that "Quicken" is composed of:

1. The program files, which have to be separated from any files that need to be changed.  This was setup my Microsoft this way to help fight viruses.
2. Configuration files that are shared by all users, like for instance the financial institution URLs.
3. Configuration files that affect the user level.  As in user 1 using Quicken can have a different setting for something than user 2.
4. Your data file(s).  Which tend to be stored in the Documents folder.
5. Windows registry.  Quicken doesn't use the Windows registry that much in comparison to some programs, mostly because it started out before it existed and so the configurations that might go there in some programs go into configuration files in #2 or #3.  And note that the Windows register actually has user level and system levels too.

Note that the GPUCache and Log files that appear where your data files really shouldn't be there.  They should be in location #2 or #3, these are showing up in the wrong spot because of bugs.