TIP: Patch Error: Unable to check for updates, the server file failed to load (quicken.com)

Fletch200

Was tying to install patches to 2016 and came across the error below…

https://www.quicken.com/support/patch-error-unable-check-updates-server-file-failed-load

That was referenced in this post…

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20159643#Comment_20159643

When examining the patch itself I stumbled across a workaround that allows installing the patch without having to create a new admin on the machine.

The patch is a self-extracting executable. Some of us with the proper tools know how to look inside these and extract the contents. If that's not you, then you can execute the patch and then look into the path similar to the one below…

c:\Users\<Your Name>\AppData\Local\Temp\IXP000.TMP\

The last part of the name 'may' vary but the date on the folder will be the CURRENT DATE/TIME. The contents will look like this…

[current]
[PatchDependency]
QWVER.DLL
SmartPatch.exe
current.zip
Patch.exe
PatchDependency.zip

In "preparation" for placing the contents into a folder that the newly created admin could easily access I copied all the files/folders above to…

c:\Users\Public\Downloads\19.5\

For grins, still logged in with my usual account, I ran SmartPatch.exe in that folder and to my surprise did not get the error. I got the dialog listing the release notes. I proceeded to install the patch without any difficulty.

Note that just copying the patch to the same Public folder still won't work because it just gets extracted to YOUR AppData\local\temp when executed. The key seems to be executing the patch INSIDE the package with that patch in some folder other than c:\users\<Your Name>\…

I did not bother trying other folders but \Users\Public should suffice since everyone already has those.

Thanks @Chris_QPW for the patches! I have 16 of them but not the last/latest one.

Note too if you want to use large fonts that the 19.5 patch doesn't work as well as the original 2016 release. If I ever decide to actually revert to 2016 then I may just install the individual patches I have until it breaks then step back one :)

UKR

Another workaround would be to make this change:

In Windows Control Panel / System / Advanced System Settings / Environment Variables both the TEMP and TMP variables usually point to a valid and existing folder, typically
C:\Users\your_username_with_a_blank_here\AppData\Local\Temp

If that is the case, I recommend you create a new folder, C:\Temp, and change both the TEMP and TMP user environment variables to point to C:\Temp, reboot Windows, verify the new Temp folder is now in use and try your Quicken installation again.