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Should Quicken run in the background, on Windows?

EmKay

Because Quicken is now so slow, for me, I often find myself performing a function (entering a transaction, starting OSU, etc.) and then switching away to my browser or email program to kill time while I wait — unfortunately, for some time now, it seems like NOTHING HAPPENS if Quicken isn't running in the foreground.

Is this normal? Shouldn't it continue to process what I've started in the background? Is there a setting that may be out-of-whack, causing this?

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Chris_QPW

There shouldn't be any reason why Quicken wouldn't keep doing One Step Update no matter if it is in the foreground or not.

I can't say that I have really checked this though since I have two displays and what I usually do is just work on the other display.

Rocket J Squirrel

Putting a window in the background should not affect the application's performance.

Check this FAQ:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7915476/faq-are-there-any-windows-settings-that-can-improve-quicken-s-performance

Boatnmaniac

I usually run Quicken in the background while I go to work on something else and normally Quicken continues to run well.

The exception to this is if I have too many apps open at the same time or am running something else that consumes a lot of memory and/or CPU. The one that causes me the most issues with memory/CPU hogging are my browsers….especially with Firefox but also sometimes with Edge and Chrome…when I have too many windows open.

Another thing to look at are the anti-malware settings. If they are set to provide the best protection they can then consume a lot of memory and CPU resources which can slow the entire system, not just Quicken.

EmKay

Well, I made every adjustment that I could from the article that @Rocket J Squirrel shared (thank you), and I still have the situation where switching to browse the internet (Brave browser, similar to Chrome) means that NOTHING happens in Quicken until I switch back. It's weird. Didn't used to be like this. And I haven't yet checked available resources when I do this, as suggested by @Boatnmaniac - but isn't multitasking like one of the major selling points of Windows (or it was, back in the day)? Two programs open and one of them won't run until it's in the foreground? I will check resources but, as another one of those "old-timers" who has used Quicken for decades - I'm getting more and more disappointed in the program and considering "homemade" options because I'm starting to be afraid of depending on it.

Chris_QPW

Like I said in my original comment I would expect that they wouldn't affect each other, but if you say they do, they I would suggest one other thing to check. Instead of switching to your web browser switch to another program and see if that stops Quicken from updating.

My "theory" as of now is that I know that Quicken uses an embedded web browser for some of the One Step Update operations, and maybe somehow the two web browsers are interacting.

EmKay

@Chris_QPW , Okay - right now, it's a little hard to say if OSU is affected by an open browser, given its continuing issues.

It does seem as though other processes (accepting downloaded investment transactions, for example) might be minutely faster when the only other program running is Excel. I'll have to play with this further.

Rocket J Squirrel

I browse using Firefox all the time while running OSU. Quicken continues to run. In fact, I keep Quicken's account bar visible while Firefox's window is in the foreground so I can see when OSU has finished.

I know nothing about Brave, so I can't say what it might be doing to interfere with Q's internet connections. But I do see this on one of brave.com's web pages:

Brave VPN encrypts and protects anything you do online, even outside the Brave browser. On every app. On your entire device.

So maybe that's what is causing issues with Q. If Brave's VPN can be disabled, try that and see whether that remedies the issue.