Why is my Quicken 2004 all of a sudden not showing on my computer when I open it?

Woob

I've been using Quicken 2004 since, well, 2004 and it has been working just fine. Today (01/29/2023)out of the blue it just stopped showing on my computer. The program opens to the welcome screen but after that, there is no display other than on the taskbar. If I open and close the program 3 times I get the "do you want to backup?" screen. If I say yes it does a backup and says backup successful. So, as I said, the program is opening but not displaying. How can I fix this? I tried re-installing the program but it still does the same thing. HELP! PLEASE and THANK YOU.

q_lurker

What you seem to be saying is that the program opens, but it does not find your data file. 

Do you know where your data file (perhaps QDATA.QDF + other files) is stored on your computer?
Did you recently change the location of that file, or folder?
Can you go to that file location and click on the file there?  That should open the file within Quicken.

MontanaKarl

@Woob
What operating system are you running?  Is it possible that some update has caused this issue? (I'm surprised that Q2004 can still run unless you're on XP or Vista)

Have you tried restarting in Safe Mode to see what happens there?

Chris_QPW

Do you have multiple monitors?
Have you had multiple monitors in the past?

It sounds like Quicken is being "displayed" on a monitor that is no longer connected to the computer.
On Windows 10/11 you should be able to hover over the Quicken icon in the taskbar and when it shows the Quicken preview, right click on that.  This should bring up a menu, select Move, and then select one of your arrow keys.  Then without clicking, move your mouse around, most likely to the right or maybe to the left and Quicken should appear on your display.

Note for Windows versions before Windows 10 you should be able to just right click on the Quicken icon in the taskbar to bring up that menu.

The Keeper

Just a thought.......Assume that your software is written in a version of Visual Basic that Microsoft hasn’t supported in years. That means your software can’t connect to a more recent version of SQL Server. Furthermore, your software won’t even run on a version of Windows that has drivers for the printers you use. I'm not a computer guru but maybe updates to your computer no longer support your 18-year-old software. One way or the other, you’ll need to spend money to get the software to do what you need it to do.

Chris_QPW

The Keeper said:

Just a thought.......Assume that your software is written in a version of Visual Basic that Microsoft hasn’t supported in years. That means your software can’t connect to a more recent version of SQL Server. Furthermore, your software won’t even run on a version of Windows that has drivers for the printers you use. I'm not a computer guru but maybe updates to your computer no longer support your 18-year-old software. One way or the other, you’ll need to spend money to get the software to do what you need it to do.

I'm sorry, but all this is wrong, with maybe the exception of the fact that Quicken 2004 might not work with current printers because of printer driver problems.

Quicken is written in C++, with maybe some of the more recent versions bring in some C# and Quicken uses a standalone database (in the Quicken data file), not a SQL server.

And if I'm not mistaken about what the problem is you can blame that on Microsoft and a bit of Quicken developers.
People want an application to remember where it was last when they quit, so there are libraries to get the current location, and then the application stores that location, and when starting up restore that location.  There isn't anything in this process that automatically checks that location is still valid and there isn't any rule that says you can't display an application either partly or fully off screen.  It is in fact, a bit tricky even to check for the condition that the application window is completely off screen.

The Quicken Windows developers have never put in such code, and as such Quicken is perfectly happy opening up the main window off screen.

BTW even if the program was written in Visual Basic, that wouldn't change any of this.
Here is Quicken Windows 2004 Deluxe running on Windows 10 in a virtual machine.

Ps56k2

The Keeper said:

Just a thought.......Assume that your software is written in a version of Visual Basic that Microsoft hasn’t supported in years. That means your software can’t connect to a more recent version of SQL Server.  I'm not a computer guru … 

Lots of buzzwords, but unfortunately, none of them apply to the actual Quicken software..  The problem could be a variety of things, since we are not there and just guessing at what was previously working, what might have changed, and now what the Quicken program is seeing as it’s operating and current environment 

Woob

q_lurker, yes, I know where the data is and opening from there does the same thing. The program seems to open as I get the usual startup screen and chime but when the startup screen goes away it is not replaced with anything. Just the icon on the task bar. Right clicking on that icon only gives me the option to close the window. But there is no window visible. It seems like it's there but it's invisible. As I said, every third time I close the window I get the window that asks if I want to backup my work. Thus obviously the program seems to think it is open. If I say yes, it backs up as usual and states that the backup was successful. To sum up, the program seems to think it's working but it's running in invisible mode. Definitely a hair-pulling, brain numbing situation.

Woob

Montanakarl: I am running windows 10 and have been for years with no issue. This just started out of the blue. I tried safe mode and it still did the same thing. What's really weird is I uninstalled the program, re-installed it and then loaded my data backup. It claims the data was retrieved successfully but when I went to open the file it did the same thing as before. Weird, huh?

Woob

Chris_QPW: Only one monitor. The program is open but where it's being displayed is the question. It's not on MY monitor.

Woob

The Keeper: Huh? But why all of a sudden, out of the blue, with no warning? I remember buying and using a version of Quicken before 2004 for quite some time and when it started acting up Intuit gave me a copy of Quicken 2004. Been using it ever since and I will continue to as soon as I get it fixed. I refuse to pay for a subscription to a program. I bought the program to use. I didn't rent it and I won't start renting it now. I did find a downloadable version of Quicken 2004 and put it on my laptop. I copied the backup from my desktop and the program is running fine (on WIN10). I just need to figure out the issue with my desktop PC. And I will, one way or another and I won't spend a dime. Thanks anyway.

Woob

Ps56k2: Thanks for your input. I will find an answer.

MontanaKarl

@Woob
You've addressed all of our speculation... thanks for that! (It is nice when someone like you fully interacts...vs some threads where the poster never answers all of the questions leaving everyone stumped.)

My last punt is an issue I have had with QWin for the last few years - even though a newer release - under Windows 10 in a VM.   Randomly, it looses the size of the main Quicken window and shows up tiny.  At least it does show up for me.   If I change my windows size it won't stick.

My solution for this different issue is that I placed a shortcut on my desktop to:
C:\Users\myname\AppData\Roaming\Quicken\config\QUSER.ini
so that I can edit the main window screen coordinates and reset them.   If I remember Q2004 era at all, it may have had this ini file under the WIndows folder and perhaps with a different name.   @Chris_QPW
would know....and would also know if I'm totally in left field here.


Opening QUSER.ini in Notepad will show a block of parameters near the bottom similar to this:

[Window]

State=Normal

Height=1092

Width=1431

Top=1

Left=2

Top and Left are the pixel coordinates of the top left corner of the main Quicken window.  I intended mine to be 1, 1 but obviously dragged a bit off.

State=Normal means it is not minimized/etc

Height/Width are the size in pixels of the main Quicken window.

Crossing my fingers that if you look at your QUSER.ini that something there looks wrong.  You can just type in 1 and 1 for Top and Left and some reasonable numbers for Height and Width (600 and 800 just to make sure it displays).  Is your State set to Normal?

MontanaKarl

@Woob
P.S.  I just launched an old XP virtual machine since Quicken was owned by Intuit back in the 2004 days.  I only had 2014 installed... but the location of the QUSER.ini file there was:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Intuit\Quicken\Config
so perhaps on Windows 10 it might be:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Intuit\config\QUSER.ini

volvogirl

I would forget about 2004.  You should at least try to convert to the 2013 version since you don’t use any online services or download transactions now. Starting in 2014 they instituted an ID password to get into your own data. I’m staying on 2013. Then it should be more stable and run on newer computer systems.  

You can download 2013 Deluxe for free using this how to convert article.  It’s under Converting from Quicken 2004-2009. Click on the blue words Quicken 2013 for Windows in step 3

https://www.quicken.com/support/how-and-when-use-intermediate-version-convert-older-versions-quicken 

FYI - All Quicken versions prior to QW2010 store your data in a series of files all sharing the same filename but with different extensions like - .IDX, .QEL, .QPH & .QDF, and all 4 of those files were rolled into a single-file .QDF in starting in 2010.

By the way, Are you in the US or running the UK version?  Those expired after 10 years or so.  

Chris_QPW

MontanaKarl said:

@Woob
P.S.  I just launched an old XP virtual machine since Quicken was owned by Intuit back in the 2004 days.  I only had 2014 installed... but the location of the QUSER.ini file there was:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Intuit\Quicken\Config
so perhaps on Windows 10 it might be:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Intuit\config\QUSER.ini

Unfortunately, Quicken's storing of the main display size and position in any INI file that the user can read/change is relatively recent.  In fact, I just looked at my install if Quicken 2004 and was really surprised.   Look at the ProgramData and User AppData:



Quicken 2004 is so old it isn't even storing its INI files in the common areas.
The Quicken.ini file is being stored in C:\Windows, and the only other INI file I can find that looks like it is from Quicken is qwimp.ini.


Given all of this, I think the only possible way forward is to try uninstalling and reinstalling, or maybe better yet go to Quicken 2013 as @volvogirl suggested.

Woob

Thank you all. I am going out of town for the next week. I will continue this when I return. Probably upgrade to the Quicken 2013 Deluxe if it works out. I'll report back soon.

Woob

BTW: I'm in the good old USA!

Woob

I"M BACK! I did a super duper uninstall and scrubbed all traces and remnants of anything Quicken from my computer. Did a fresh install of Quicken 2004 from a download I found (still may try that Quicken 2013 Deluxe version) and I'm happy to report that I am back in business. Luckily I had my data backed up on some removeable media so I was able to load that in the program and now all is well. Thanks again to all of you for joining in and helping. Of course I still don't know what happened and probably never will. C'est la vie.

volvogirl

And did you patch it?  If you do install an older version you will need to update it.  One of the SuperUsers has posted the update patches for older versions (2000 and newer) of Quicken

http://www.quicknperlwiz.com/quicken-patches-us.html