BindContent.Exe preventing Quicken from running

124

Answers

  • jacobs
    jacobs Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta

    If the issue is only with Parallels users, that suggests to me that it's a Parallels issue. You're paying for Parallels as well, but you're insisting it's a Quicken problem. So I'm just wondering: why not pursue this with Parallels tech support? Their job is to make their VM work with all applications that run natively on Windows, so I'd think they would be the ones who might be able to see what's going on.

    If you expect Quicken to do something, my next question is whether you contacted Quicken Support? This forum is not Quicken Support, and reporting an issue here does not make its way to the development team for investigation. Support should be able to tell you if this is a known issue they have documented; if not, they may be able to screen share with you to document the problem and create a ticket to have it escalated. But one of the questions I would ask is if they officially support and actual test their releases with Quicken Windows running on Parallels on a Mac. I'm just guessing that they may not. And if not, they won't be able to replicate your problem. I just don't know if their testing includes VMs like Parallels and VMWare Fusion.

    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Jack's iMac
    Jack's iMac Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭
    edited November 14

    BECAUSE BINDCONTENT.EXE IS A QUICKEN APPLICATION. There's a related thread where Quicken has acknowledged this issue and has been working on it.

  • NotACPA
    NotACPA Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    Which Parallels is screwing up. There's no problem whatsoever with Bindcontent.exe on a true Windows PC.

    Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
    Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
    Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP

  • ifunlisted
    ifunlisted Member ✭✭

    Other programs work fine with Parallels (no UAC issues), which suggests it's a Quicken problem. Quicken runs fine on non-Parallels systems, which suggests it's a Parallels problem. Chicken, egg. The point is there's a problem between the two of them and users are just trying to get someone to address it. Quicken hasn't made any progress on their end in almost two months (despite user threads and acknowledging the issue). Parallels hasn't seen a lot of complaints because we all thought it was a Quicken issue. Makes sense to me that we raise the issue with Parallels… again hoping they'll be a little more proactive.

  • NotACPA
    NotACPA Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    And QMac works perfectly well on a Mac and QWin has no problems with BindContent.exe. Which STRONGLY indicts Parallels as the culprit.

    Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
    Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
    Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP

  • BryanK
    BryanK Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭

    QMac not an option for me until when (and if) it reaches feature set parity with the Windows version. I bought Parallels specifically to run Quicken for Windows.

    What we know so far:

    • Affects the latest Quicken for Windows version 59.8 running on recent Windows 11 under Parallels on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs
      • But DOES NOT HAPPEN on older versions of Windows 11 and/or older versions of Quicken (big hint?)

    I think the poster above James Ryan may be onto something about Parallels/.NET translation layer incompatiblities

  • Jack's iMac
    Jack's iMac Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭

    Agree with BryanK. It's the very reason why I've been running Quicken for Windows under Parallels since getting my first iMac 12 years ago. It's the ONLY reason I use Windows and Parallels. My 2019 iMac is Intel based running Windows 10 since it's not compatible with Windows 11.

  • ATL_Wolf
    ATL_Wolf Quicken Windows Subscription Member

    Chiming in here as well to follow this thread - same issue here running the latest versions of Parallels, Win11 24H2 Pro ARM and Quicken (on a MacBook Pro M3 Pro). Renaming the Quicken bindcontent.exe at least temporarily provides a work around, but it's a strange one.

  • jacobs
    jacobs Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta

    Not to be overly repetitive about this, but has anyone experiencing this issue reached out to Parallels technical support?

    Since their claim to fame is making Windows run seamlessly on a Mac, and since there's a problem with an application which doesn't occur on native Windows PCs but only on Macs running Parallels, I would think they would want to look into it.

    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Jeff31572
    Jeff31572 Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭

    Now it is November 18th and still no resolution!!!! Wish Intuit never sold the company!!!!!

  • NotACPA
    NotACPA Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    Because it's Parallels that needs to fix this … not Q.

    Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
    Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
    Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP

  • ifunlisted
    ifunlisted Member ✭✭

    We all need to reach out to Parallels. There's not a large number of people running Quicken Windows Desktop on non-Windows computers. It's not a priority for Parallels unless they hear from more users. I contacted their customer support about 10 days ago and also sent in a Technical Data Report (I suggest everyone here does the same)…it takes about 5 minutes. They got back to me fairly quickly and have been responsive, but so far it's just "reinstall this, roll back that, here's a workaround" etc. They're asking me to do all the troubleshooting but don't seem to be looking into it on their end, and I wouldn't expect that to change unless they get more support requests for the same issue.

  • milmom2005
    milmom2005 Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭

    Jack's iMac, your workaround works for me and also I have to login to Quicken each time too. I use Quicken on my Parallells VM with Windows 11 on an M3 MacBook Air. All was working great until I did a reinstall when trying to make the Quicken cloud sync work, which also has issues.

  • Jack's iMac
    Jack's iMac Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭

    Since I live alone, I simply keep Quicken open to avoid the login requirement.

  • drockmkaer .
    drockmkaer . Member ✭✭

    I have to agree that this is a quicken issue.

    I had the issue when trying to do reinstall months back when they blocked the data from Citibank.

    So I rolled back to a previous version R53.32

    Build 27.1.53.32

    I am running windows 11 home on a 2020 Intel based iMac with the latest version of parallels and for some reason after the roll back it has been working fine for months now. When I go to the help menu -check for updates it tells me I am running the latest version even though I am not.

  • jacobs
    jacobs Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta

    Since I live alone, I simply keep Quicken open to avoid the login requirement.

    @Jack's iMac Hopefully you trigger manual backups regularly, since you're losing out on automatic backups upon quitting.

    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Jack's iMac
    Jack's iMac Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭

    I back up daily.

  • drockmkaer .
    drockmkaer . Member ✭✭

    I back up daily.
    So after posting the above download the entire quicken installer and got the bind content thing. Reverted back to previous snapshot and it’s running fine with the older version.

  • ifunlisted
    ifunlisted Member ✭✭

    Another Quicken update was released and still no fix for the UAC bindcontent.exe issue.

    Here's one more reason to contact Parallels…

    I installed another Windows virtual machine, this time using VMWare Fusion (which is now free by the way). The VM is identical to the one I have on Parallels; latest version of Windows 11 24H2, latest version and build of Quicken. When I open the same Quicken file on the Fusion VM, I have no issues at all… Quicken starts up without any pop-ups, no workarounds needed, I don't have to select the file I want to open (it automatically opens the last used file just like it's supposed to), and it doesn't ask for my account password.

  • BryanK
    BryanK Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭

    Thanks @ifunlisted that may be the answer. Will give VMWare a try and see how it performs

  • ifunlisted
    ifunlisted Member ✭✭

    I've used Fusion for 10-15 years and it's always worked well but they were recently bought out by Broadcom and there were rumors that it would be discontinued. It's still fully supported and updated regularly and it's actually free now unless you need the enterprise/workstation version. I only changed to Parallels because I needed to upgrade from 32-bit Windows 10 to 64-bit Win 11 and I read somewhere that Parallels was a little more seamless with Windows 11, so I thought I'd give them a try. I have to say, fully functioning and free is feeling much better than paying an annual subscription and then having to deal with workarounds. I sent another message to Parallels to let them know there are no issues with Quicken on Fusion… we'll see what they say/do.

  • Jack's iMac
    Jack's iMac Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭
    edited November 20

    I installed Fusion this morning but when I open Quicken under it, I get the same BindContent BS prompt!

  • ifunlisted
    ifunlisted Member ✭✭

    Did you use new clean downloads of everything? And did you download the multi-edition version of Windows 11 or the ARM version?

    When I first tried to copy my Parallels VM to Fusion, I still got the error too. The only thing that worked was starting with a fresh copy of Windows 11, on the newest version of Fusion Pro (Pro 13 free personal version from the Broadcom site, not workstation), and new download of Quicken. The only thing that wasn't a brand new clean copy was my Quicken Data file.

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11 (I used the mult-edition iso)

    https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleNumber=315638 (you'll have to register first, then get the download links)

    You can download the Windows iso without paying for another license. After I tested everything to make sure it worked in Fusion, I just transferred the registration from the Parallels copy of Windows to the the Fusion copy (done in the system settings in Windows).

  • Jack's iMac
    Jack's iMac Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭

    Thank you for this information. By putting Parallels in the trash, I'm able to open Quicken with VMWare. Does it offer something like Parallels "coherence" mode? When I try to change the window, instead of extending the view, it simply changes the size of the existing window.

  • ifunlisted
    ifunlisted Member ✭✭
    edited November 20

    It used to have something called Unity View which is gone now, but I never used it... I just use Fusion in full screen mode and keep the Windows programs there, and the Mac programs in the Mac OS. Try the 'Default Applications' option in the Fusion VM Settings though, it looks like that could work.

    For what it's worth, Parallels still feels like a better interface, and it seems to run a little smoother/cleaner than Fusion… but not enough for me to deal with workarounds. It felt a little like an early Christmas when Quicken opened all the way through:)

    I still haven't heard back from Parallels support after I let them know their free competitor doesn't have this issue, but again, we should all be contacting them at this point.

  • ifunlisted
    ifunlisted Member ✭✭

    If anyone tries a clean ARM version of Windows 11 using Fusion, please let us know if it works.

  • ifunlisted
    ifunlisted Member ✭✭

    @Quicken Anja @Quicken Jasmine if you guys are still monitoring this, could you please let us know if anyone from the Quicken team has reached out to Parallels to resolve this issue. Thanks.

  • jacobs
    jacobs Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta

    @ifunlisted It might be nice if they did, but why would Quicken Windows developers reach out to Parallels about an issue which seems to be something in Parallels? Quicken Windows works fine on native Windows PCs, and now we have additional evidence that it works fine under Fusion's VM. So since it fails with Parallels, it seems it's something Parallels needs to look into. I just don't see why Quicken would jump into this, unless they know more about the BindContent.exe operation and why it might be an issue in some environments.

    As you stated, it could really help the matter if more Quicken windows-on-Parallels users reached out to Parallels about this issue, to make sure it's not seen as a one-off issue a single user has reported.

    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • ifunlisted
    ifunlisted Member ✭✭

    Agreed. The hope is that Quicken still feels responsible enough to want their product to work for all users, and now they might have a more direct route to a solution. It will likely still matter less to Parallels because Quicken Windows Desktop users are probably a smaller fraction of their customer base (even smaller than Parallels users for Quicken). In the end, it's just about trying to compel either side to interact with each other so we can get this fixed.

  • James Ryan
    James Ryan Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭

    I think the more accurate question is— are we seeing this only on WoA (emulated or no) or only on Parallels (Windows or WoA)?

    Are users running Parallels on Intel based Macs seeing the issue, or is it specific to Apple Silicon Macs? If Intel Macs are seeing the issue as well it is definitely a Parallels problem, but if they are not then I would be looking at the WoA adaptation layer and possibly issues with that and Parallels.

    If you’re running Fusion, are you implementing an Intel VM or an ARM VM? An Intel VM wouldn’t see the issue if the problem is in WoA.

    And has anyone running Quicken on a WoA computer (not running Parallels) seeing this issues?