Software & Game Downloads

J. Preece says:

January 30, 2010 at 5:19 am

I’ve used Quicken for about 10 years now and it has always had its share of issues. Bugs, oddities, and frustrating work-arounds were pretty standard. I found it better in most was than Money but since MS Money is no longer supported, it looks like Quicken is really the only game in town.

I gotta say, since upgrading to 2010 I see a lot that I like. The new design is better, easier to get a glance at your finances, and the Update feature (auto-downloads of bank accounts) works much better than in 2007. I used to get a list of errors almost every time I updated, but on this version that seems to be fixed. It’s almost more clear when the “error” is that no transactions have posted.

The business section also seems to have been improved with tagging in the registers. This makes it a little easier to sort expenses and income between personal and business. In the 2007 version it was more arduous to separate these items.

Finally, the screen showing outstanding bills is nicer, and I do like the ability to mark a bill as paid and clearly see that it was entered.

The Quicken engineers did a few nice upgrades all around on this version. Is it worth the money to upgrade? If you have any older version of Quicken, I’d say it’s worth the upgrade. If you are on 2009, I’d wait a year or two and get the most out of your last investment. I was *forced* to upgrade because 2007 will stop supporting downloads from bank accounts in April. This is standard for Quicken- they force you to upgrade every three years. This is one reason I will probably never rate their products with 5-stars (are you listening, Intuit??).

Rating: 4 / 5

Marvin Gozum says:

January 30, 2010 at 8:48 am

If you are a current Quicken user faced with a forced upgrade, version 2010 is better than at least, 2007. upgrade only when necessary. My upgrades this decade were in 2004 and 2007.

As a heavy user since 1988, I’ve seen a lot change with Quicken, many have been painful. Versions this decade are the least problematic. Periodic upgrades do make sense given its Internet centric operation because HTML, encryption, security protocols, and more, have evolved much and Quicken must adopt these changes. Alas, to users most of these are invisible and behind the scenes. In 2010, Quicken now uses the .NET framework for coding, a mixed blessing, as it consumes more memory, resources and disk space to add capability and stability. Computers should find these added needs inconsequential if these machines run games and 720p movies easily. I’ve not had problems with data syncing, slow response, bugs, lost data, corrupt files etc., despite my 4 year old computer and continuous data going back to 1985.

I’ve never upgraded to a first release of a new version to avoid bugs, nor overwrite a prior version. Always make a full system backup before installation, a system restore point just before installation, then a fresh install, then import the prior data file as a copy, keeping the old file intact. This leads to the least, if not problem free upgrade and an effortless path back to the old version should the upgrade bomb. Although I received 2010 Release 1.0, online files were available to upgrade my 2010 to Release 4.0.

The GUI design has remain unchanged, and clearly noticeable improvements and editing aids are welcome, BUT not worth paying for.

Quicken does make effortless a core function of personal finance, quick retrieval and reliable storage of data, editing and later analysis via reports. In the past decade, data retrieval has been nearly flawless; duplicate entries are increasingly rare even if you overlap a data set, say after syncing manually then later add data using a QFX file. However, Quicken has many shortcomings that should have been fixed decades ago. Quicken has sub-optimally organized or thought out functions. Its not intuitive where a function is, several do the same thing or are poorly thought out. For example, there are 3 ways to write electronic checks that do the same thing differently: through a 1990s “online banking” interface, the checking register, or a separate checkbook app. Attachments to register entries, such as jpgs of checks, can be encrypted individually, however you can see the files whether encrypted or not, the annunciator is poorly located so its not immediately clear if attachments are encrypted, and this option implies Quicken data files are not encrypted entirely, a serious oversight. There is also suggestion from Elcomsoft, that a backdoor exists for decoding Quicken data file passwords. Luckily, one can separately encrypt files or drive partitions using Windows options or 3rd party programs.

The new user or light Quicken user should know there are several free personal finance managers available for download that read Quicken formats. I’ve tried some of them but they lack Quicken’s overall flexibility, and they are similar to early versions of Quicken. Thus, if your needs are simple like budgeting, then tracking income, expense and some investing, there maybe free alternatives. Should you decide to move to Quicken later, these programs allow exports into the Quicken format.
Rating: 4 / 5

Radio Head says:

January 30, 2010 at 1:54 pm

I have been using some version of Quicken since 1995 and am happy with the software. However, I am not happy with the fact that Intuit forces you to upgrade the software every 3 years although there is no compelling reason to do so. If you download your bank and credit card transactions, you have no choice but to upgrade because Intuit says that the older version will not support the download any more. This appears to be a business tactic to continue the revenue stream and not for helping the customer or for technical reasons.
Rating: 3 / 5