If I'm out of town can I use Quicken from my desktop on my laptop?

debproudfoo

Temporily working in another city but want to monitor and pay bills from my laptop (windows). Currently Quicken is on my desktop computer (Windows).

Frankx

Hi @debproudfoo,

Yes, first, on your laptop, - you can download the Quicken application from this webpage - LINK1.

Then, right before you go on your trip, I suggest that you copy your most recent Quicken datafile (your-filename.QDF) from your desktop computer to a thumb drive.  

While on your trip, you should run Quicken from the thumbdrive, since that will be easier.  When you get back home, you should copy the Quicken datafile from your laptop back to your desktop computer, overwriting the old datafile.

Let me know if you have any followups.

Frankx

Frankx

Hi @debproudfoo,

Yes, first, on your laptop, - you can download the Quicken application from this webpage - LINK1.

Then, right before you go on your trip, I suggest that you copy your most recent Quicken datafile (your-filename.QDF) from your desktop computer to a thumb drive.  

While on your trip, you should run Quicken from the thumbdrive, since that will be easier.  When you get back home, you should copy the Quicken datafile from your laptop back to your desktop computer, overwriting the old datafile.

Let me know if you have any followups.

Frankx

debproudfoo

Wow - thank you Frankx!!

Greg_the_Geek

I would suggest copying your Quicken data file from the thumb drive to the laptop's local drive. I won't trust keeping my live data file on a thumb drive. You can use it for backups.

SBJPLACE

I have a MAC for a laptop, though. All I have been able to do is install Chrome Desktop on my laptop - as long as my Windows computer is turned on, I can access and work on it. A little hard to read, as it doesn't come through 'full size', but it is workable when traveling. Just be aware of internet security ( or lack thereof) and use your phone or a secure connection to do any transactions or view sensitive information.

Boatnmaniac

Also, if you do this (transferring your desktop data file to your laptop) you will want to make sure that no one (including yourself) accesses that data file with Quicken on the desktop computer after you have completed transferring a copy of that data file to your laptop.  And when you later transfer the data file from your laptop back to your desktop you will want to make sure no one accesses that data file on your laptop.  If you don't take care regarding this you risk compromising the integrity of the data in one or both copies of that data file.

Perhaps the safest way to do this would be to delete the data file on your desktop after copying and moving it to your laptop.  Then later, delete the data file on your laptop after copying and moving it to your desktop.  If you do it this way, be sure to backup the data files before deleting them.  Then you should be good to go.

fanfare

to run Quicken on your desktop from a distant laptop you have to:
enable Remote Desktop.
have the computer running (sleep disabled)
Be logged out (not sure about this rule).
have at least one account set up that is allowed login via remote Desktop (credentials).
be able to Run Quicken from that account.

 to set this up is tricky so I'll have to refer you to Microsoft Windows documentation.