Will TurboTax 2019 work on Windows 7 machines?

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Interesting question from CP: I just saw that turbotax 2019 only supports win 8.0 and above. What option do us win 7 users have? Will it still work wi
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Elly, wdburt1, ryegrass, GreatAndPowerfulTech

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The exact same thing happened when Windows XP support was retired for TurboTax 2015.  If I remember right, they put a hard block in 2016.

Intuit’s recommendation for people in this situation is to use the online version instead.

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woody, pmcjr6142

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This answer is to a FAQ on Turbo Tax’s statement regarding Windows 7….”This Windows 7 information is specific to TurboTax and QuickBooks desktop users ONLY.”  I assume desktop users refer to those that install the software via the 2019 Turbo Tax CD.  This is not the online version.

iPhone 13, 2019 iMac(SSD)

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This was the answer on the TurboTax site:

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-topics/help/what-if-i-don-t-want-to-upgrade-from-windows-7/00/27617

“While our minimum system requirements are Windows 8 and above, you’ll still be able to install and use TurboTax 2019 for Windows with Windows 7 or newer. We strongly recommend using TurboTax 2019 with Windows 8 and above. TurboTax 2016, 2017 and 2018 will also run on Windows 7 as well as the newest Windows releases. However, you won’t be able to use TurboTax 2020 with Windows 7. If you want to keep using Windows 7 after 2019, consider TurboTax Online for your tax preparation needs.” [for tax year 2019, filed in 2020]

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Charlie, Elly, FakeNinja, warrenrumak

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Things like this are why there is such a thing as WINE for Windows.  It seems absurd at first, but if the desire is to go beyond the Windows compatibility mode’s capabilities for running software for older versions of Windows, I can see where it makes sense.

There’s also the possibility of using VMs.  Tax software is not, erm, taxing on the system’s graphics subsystem, so its performance in a VM should be quite adequate.

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I am a Mac User.
I have been using my tax software in Parallels VMs running Win7 and Win8.1 on the Mac with no problems.

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if Intuit were really interested in their users security and privacy, they would release a version of TurboTax for Linux.

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Elly, johnf, wavy

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I’ve been using FreeTaxUSA for 8 years.  It’s online and great.  No need to install new versions for keep up with any tax software or Windows Operating systems, ETC.

https://www.freetaxusa.com/

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Has anyone here installed TurboTax 2019 on Windows 7, allowed it to successfully update, and then used it to prepare and print their taxes?

Any problems or comments?

Thanks!

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Hmm, interesting. I wouldn’t necessarily expect to get a response here on these forums to my message right above this one (#2139521).

But I have posted a similar message on the Intuit TurboTax community site and on a couple of threads on a big deals site that has posted deals on TurboTax since the start of the year and so far I’m not even getting crickets.

Maybe it’s too early in the tax season . . .

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Did you try searching for TurboTax on this site?

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Alternatively, just scroll up 6-7 messages…

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Charlie

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After rereading this whole thread, I gather that you are not asking “will it work” (see 2053238), but rather “has anyone [thus far in the tax season] installed, updated, and used” the product.

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Unable to install Turbo Tax 2019 on win7 serv1 … tried everything, the CD the online and even the 800 line!

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anonymous wrote:

Unable to install Turbo Tax 2019 on win7 serv1 … tried everything, the CD the online and even the 800 line!

See my post at the bottom of this thread (as I write this):

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/will-turbotax-2019-work-on-windows-7-machines/#post-2171784

I forgot to mention in that post that I temporarily disabled my anti-virus software before it installed TT2019 on Win7. I don’t know if that made a difference or not, but did you try that?

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If you have a single license for Turbo Tax, you may be blocked from installing it on a server. This would be to prevent more than one computer from using the single license.

Some software has this type of block built in (AutoCAD comes to mind), and so I wouldn’t be surprised if that were also the case with Turbo Tax.

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with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I  stayed with Win 7 and had no problems filing my 2019 taxes with Turbo Tax Desktop. I filed electronically, no problem with refund or updates.  2020 Taxes will either be done with other tax software or an upgrade (UGH) to Win 10.

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PKCano wrote:

Did you try searching for TurboTax on this site?

Yes, before I posted my initial message (#2139521). 🙂

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jabeattyauditor wrote:

Alternatively, just scroll up 6-7 messages…

Thanks for responding.

I’m not sure which message you are talking about but I don’t see any that answer my full question.

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PaulK wrote:

After rereading this whole thread, I gather that you are not asking “will it work” (see 2053238), but rather “has anyone [thus far in the tax season] installed, updated, and used” the product.

Thanks for responding.

Correct!

With the addition of “successfully” before “installed“.  🙂

 

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What is the rationale behind your question/s? Have you tried to install and failed? Otherwise, since they state “you’ll still be able to install and use TurboTax 2019 for Windows with Windows 7”, I don’t understand the apprehension.

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PaulK wrote:

What is the rationale behind your question/s? Have you tried to install and failed? Otherwise, since they state “you’ll still be able to install and use TurboTax 2019 for Windows with Windows 7”, I don’t understand the apprehension.

I am apprehensive for a number of reasons.

To start with, Intuit first said TurboTax 2019 would not install on Windows 7. Then they reversed themselves and said that, yes, it would install on Windows 7 but they would not support it there. That doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence.

Intuit have implemented an activation process this year for both the CD and download versions of TT2019 that requires entry of a license code at time of installation. They allow installation on up to five individual PCs. Amazon reviews for TT2019 and Intuit’s own community forum for TT2019 are loaded with complaints that the activation process is broken, it doesn’t allow folks to install TT2019, it asks for the code every time they launch the program, it won’t allow the program to launch if they already have been asked for the license code and they entered it five times on the same PC, etc..

There are other posts about TT2019 unable to download and install updates, not allowing downloading of the State tax software that was paid for, not pulling in data from last year’s tax return, not allowing e-filing of Federal taxes (which also blocks e-filing of State taxes after folks paid an additional fee for that). And there’s more but those are the ones I distinctly recall at the moment.

Most of the posts don’t mention the version of Windows on which they are running TT2019 or on which version they tried to install it. But when I searched the Amazon reviews for Windows 7 I got a pretty small number of hits and they were about evenly split between OK and not OK if you take out the complaints about Intuit indicating that next year TT2020 will not install on Windows 7.

 

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Elly

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For what it’s worth, a few weeks ago I bought the H&R Block 2019 tax software that I’ve used for a few years and failed to notice on the box that it said Windows 8.1 and 10 only.  However, I have successfully installed it on Windows 7, and it imported 2018’s tax return.  I did an online update yesterday successfully as well.  I haven’t gone through the whole thing to enter the 2019 data yet, nor have I checked to see that my state installed properly, so I can’t verify if it will truly truly work, but it seems promising.

My guess is that they’re being “patient” this year toward Windows 7 users like Turbo Tax seems to be, but that patience may end after this year.

 

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Paul T

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[opti1]

For the record I’m updating my initial post above:

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/will-turbotax-2019-work-on-windows-7-machines/#post-2139521

Yesterday I successfully:

• installed TurboTax 2019 on Windows 7 HP SP1,
• downloaded and installed all the current updates,
• launched and activated the software,
• brought in last year’s data from TurboTax 2018,
• completed a first cut of my 2019 federal taxes,
• downloaded and installed the state tax software,
• completed a first cut of my 2019 state taxes,
• and printed all the forms required for filing.

I did not attempt to e-file.

I have the CD with option to download version for TT2019 Deluxe, federal, state, federal e-file, purchased from Costco. I tried to download the software since it appears it comes with all the current updates included. Unfortunately I was never able to successfully connect to the download site so I reverted to the CD.

I have not tried to launch TT again yet. I don’t want to trigger unnecessary repeat activations if they haven’t yet fixed the problem where it asks for activation each time you launch the program and after the fifth time you are locked out.

I’ll post again after I try to e-file.

 

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by opti1.

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Elly

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If there’s still interest, I’ve installed 2019 TurboTax Premier (CD purchased at Costco back in Dec 2019) on my Windows 7 partition of my dual boot laptop without any issues.

After install, the program 1st checked for updates, installed them then restarted. After restart, it asked for the license key before starting a return.

After reading about the license key issues here and on TurboTax support forums and before starting my return, I decided to exit then restart the program several times throughout the day to see if the program would indeed ask for the license key again – it did not.

I then performed several reboots through the day running both Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 (the other dual boot OS) and whenever I was running Windows 7, I again ran then exited TurboTax 2-3 times again to see if it would ask for the license key – again it did not.

Over the next week or so, I’ve repeated this to see if I had to re-enter the license key – it never asked for the license key again.

I then completed the return progressing through step-by-step in 5-6 iterations saving the partially completed return then exiting then re-running TurboTax between the steps. Still no 2nd time request for the license key.

I started and completed a 2nd return just 2 days ago (about 2 weeks after the 1st return) and again no 2nd time license key request.

I was expecting to enter the license key at least a 2nd time based on all the discussions here and on TurboTax support and the fact that the TurboTax Installation Leaflet enclosed with the CD states:

Please keep this code in a safe place. You will be prompted to enter it during installation, perhaps more than once.

But so far, only had to enter the license key once during the program’s initial install. So after 3 weeks or so, except for having to enter a license key to install 2019 TurboTax everything seems to be “operation normal” running 2019 TurboTax on Windows 7.

However, these is one annoyance:

Seems like we can disable the Windows 7 NAG screen in Windows but, there’s no way to prevent TurboTax from showing it whenever you run TurboTax – hopefully, clicking on the “Switch to Windows 10” button (which I don’t plan on doing) doesn’t re-activate the old Windows GWX campaign all over again 🙂

By the way, I’ve also installed and been using (weekly since Dec) 2019 TurboTax Business on the same Windows 7 system and have gotten the same exact results with only having to enter its license key once during initial program install.

Good news here is that unlike the individual 2019 TurboTax products, the Windows 7 NAG screen above is not displayed by 2019 TurboTax Business.

Finally, during install of both TurboTax products, Symantec Endpoint Protection (Virus, Malware & Firewall) software was fully operational, not disabled like some have suggested on various forums. Also, after initial program install, update and activation, I’ve disabled TurboTax internet access via the Symantec Endpoint Protection Firewall and both programs still run fine.

You’ll have to enable internet access to automatically check for and get program updates but I normally just do manual updates downloading them from the TurboTax Manual Update site here.

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opti1, Elly

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[opti1]

My experience with Turbotax Deluxe 2019 was almost identical to RDRguy’s experience. I also bought my copy of the software from Costco but I was running it on Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 and I didn’t have any interaction with the business version.

I will add that I also had no problems downloading my state tax software, printing or saving anything to PDF, nor e-filing my Federal return (I mail in my state tax return). Both returns and their refunds processed without issues.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by opti1.

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They are mandated by the IRS to warn you of secure computing practices.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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RDRguy

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I’ll buy that & I must confess, I installed 2019 TurboTax Business on the Windows 8.1 partition, not the Windows 7 partition as I originally posted above – sorry about that.

Running OpenShell on Windows 8.1, I sometimes mis-perceive which operating system I booted into as I have both of them setup almost alike.

This surely explains why I didn’t get the Windows 7 NAG display running TurboTax Business.

Win7 - PRO & Ultimate, x64 & x86
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Elly

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I was unable to install TT2019 on Windows 7 until I temporarily disabled my Internet Security. With the Firewall and Scanning service temporarily turned off the TT2019 did install successfully on my Windows 7 PC and I completed my tax return.  I have not yet attempted to netfile.

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yeah they’re sooooo concerned with your “security”… so concerned that they blocked my installation until I disabled all my firewall and microsoft security essentials leaving my system wide open.. then it worked just fine..

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For those of us that have been using TurboTax, we’ve come to a crossroads.  The makers of TurboTax (I can’t ever remember if they’re still Intuit, or if Intuit is where Quicken went when they split), we have been given an ultimatum:  to use turboTax, you MUST upgrade to Windows 8 or higher; they will no longer support Windows 7, ostensibly due to security issues.

For TurboTax tax year 2019 (this year’s product) they gave us the same warning.  I’m still on Windows 7.  I started early, and had begun to fill out the income forms and bogged down in the business (schedule C) stuff.  Imagine my horror when no matter what I did, when I tried to re-visit the income sheets (I had some minor changes to make) every time I got to the point of entering my 1099 data it crashed!  There had been a couple of updates between February and when I discovered this.

Several re-tries and calls to TurboTax support later, I finally found a nonstandard solution.  Their recommendation had been to re-install turboTax from scratch.  Unfortunately, the first thing it did upon completion of the installation was to install all of the latest updates, which once again screwed the pooch.

My solution was this:  Start the installation, allow TurboTax to verify the license by entering the serial number, then unplug my network cable.  When the installation finished and came time to download all the updates, they failed due to no internet connection.

I was then able to successfully complete my taxes, without the bogus update applied.  As it happened, they actually published another update about a week before the extended deadline in July which solved the crashing problem, but they’ve made it clear that they have no intention of further supporting Windows 7 next year.

I’ve been using TurboTax since about version 4 for DOS, back around 1988 and I LIKE it.  Not going to find another product.  I guess whet I’ll have to do is install and run it on one of my Windows 10 laptops instead of my big desktop.

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cavourite wrote:

we have been given an ultimatum: to use turboTax, you MUST upgrade to Windows 8 or higher; they will no longer support Windows 7, ostensibly due to security issues. For TurboTax tax year 2019 (this year’s product) they gave us the same warning.

Intuit recommends Turbo Tax Online for Win 7 users.

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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