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"Do you want to run this file?" pop-up when trying to launch Quicken Classic

RJR80544

There is an intermittent issue with Quicken Classic for Windows and
Microsoft Defender on Windows 11 Pro 24H2.

The Quicken version is R63.21, build 27.1.63.21
Windows version 24H2 OS Build 26100.4946

Sometimes, double clicking on the Quicken icon (to launch qw.exe) I
get the "Do you want to run this file?" pop-up from Windows. This
problem just started a few days ago (perhaps around 13 August 2025).

Quicken support suggested uninstalling and reinstalling Quicken
(their usual shotgun approach to "fix" a problem without
understanding why the problem has happened in the first place).

To placate the support person I did what was asked of me.

For a brief period of time (perhaps a few hours), I could double
click on the Quicken desktop icon and Quicken would launch as it
should. However, the problem came back.

As a Band-Aid work around for the time being, I added an exception
for the entire Quicken directory to Microsoft Defender (Navigate to
Windows Security -> Virus & threat protect settings -> Manage ->
Exclusions -> Add or Remove Exclusions -> Add an exclusion -> Folder
and finally enter the complete path to the Quicken directory; a
lovely process).

This has definitely done the trick so far, however, it is troubling.

It's really hard to know if this bad behavior is some sort of (yet
another) Microsoft defect/bug, or, is it (yet another) Quicken
defect/bug.

Have any others encountered this? If so, have you managed to
diagnose what is actually going wrong?

Thanks for the insight and help.

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Comments

Quicken Jasmine

Hello @RJR80544,

Thanks for reaching out!

I have sent you a direct message; please navigate to the inbox in the top right-hand corner of the Community page and check your inbox.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

RJR80544

Hello Jasmine;

I responded to your direct message and accepted your offer with a suggested date and time. However, that date/time has passed and I've not heard a peep from anyone at Quicken (which I find disturbing and unfortunate).

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for the follow-up @RJR80544,

I replied to your direct message. Please check your inbox.

Thank you!

RJR80544

After trying many, many suggested resolution actions (suggested by others NOT affiliated with Quicken) and not achieving success, I chose to install a different security product (Emsisoft Business Security) as a replacement for Microsoft Defender. This has yielded success (at least so far) — I can now launch Quicken (qw.exe) without getting the annoying and technically incorrect pop-up from Windows. While I'm pleased with the outcome, it's very troubling that the actual root cause of the problem remains unknown.

One method of disabling the Windows pop-up (independent of which security product is being used, i.e., Microsoft Defender or Emsisoft Business Security) involves using the Local Group Policies editor to disable all such warnings for all files with a specific extension (.exe in my case). Here are the steps:

Open a command prompt session as an Administrator and launch gpedit.msc

Navigate to "User Configuration" -> "Administrative Templates" -> "Windows Components" -> "Attachment Manager".

In the right panel, double click "Inclusion list for low file types", toggle the setting to "Enabled", and in the lower left "specify low risk extensions" data entry area type a semi-colon separated list of extensions for which you want to get rid of the "Open File - Security Warning" pop-up. For this specific case entering ".exe" (without the quote marks), clicking on "Apply" and then clicking on "OK" requests disablement of the aforementioned pop-up for all files whose name ends with ".exe".

This has worked on my tests, however, it is a sort of shotgun-on-a-flea approach, i.e., it is too broad in scope. Caveat Emptor.

After testing I removed this setting (while still using Microsoft Defender) and found that the pop-up indeed returned.

So, now the system is using Emsisoft Business Security, and the problem seems to have been remedied. But the nagging question of root cause still remains. Ugh!

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for the follow-up,

I'm glad to hear you found a resolution. Based on your description, it sounds like something about the way your Windows Defender was set up was causing the problem. Were you using the default settings? Is this a work computer, personal computer, or both?

Thank you!

RJR80544

It is definitely NOT the way "Windows Defender was set up". Actually, there is nothing to setup with Windows Defender. Yes, there are settings that can be changed, but I did not change anything between the times the problem manifested itself and when it didn't. As I've previously stated, the problem appears to be random with zero configuration changes to anything. And the ONLY application that has this problem is Quicken. It seems pretty clear that there is some sort of problem with Quicken itself; perhaps Quicken is performing some type of activity that is not truly supported by Windows and that sets up the environment for the problem.

While it appears that, at least so far, I have a work around for the problem, the root cause remains unknown. Quicken support should do better at analyzing the problem to try to understand what is happening.

The computer is used for both personal work and my software development work (I own the machine and I own the development company).

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

The Quicken Community is not the same as contacting Quicken Support. It is primarily a community where users help other users, and a handful of moderators, like myself, can do some troubleshooting with you. Due to the nature of the issue you are encountering, I recommend that you contact Quicken Support directly for further assistance, since they have access to tools that we can't access on the Community and they are able to escalate the issue as needed. The Quicken Support phone number can be found through this link here. Phone support is available from 5:00 am PT to 5:00 pm PT, Monday through Friday.

I apologize that I could not be of more assistance!