TurboTax 2011: Windows XP Mode to the rescue but problem persists under Windows 7

I had to resort to Windows XP Mode to be able to run TurboTax 2011 after one last attempt (one of many) to reinstall the program. Apparently, disabling the antivirus program, and modifying the Firewall inbound and outbound rules before installing did not help this time either. Same old story: I get a terse "TurboTax 2011 Is Installed" message with a "Done" button to click on. Then, the same frustration (see previous post) and the program does not start and does not even say whatever is wrong. Will I, or any of my readers, ever know what happened?On the other hand, Windows XP mode, which I like a lot, is not intended to run "new" software. "New" software should run well under Windows 7. No excuses. On the other hand, it is clear that Intuit, the company behind TurboTax, is aware of this problem, as indicated in their user forum here,  and also here, where other folks have complained too. It seems that this "old" problem apparently has not been taken care of. That is just unacceptable!

Waiting for TurboTax to get things ready... in time for tax season?

This year the TurboTax 2011 software has a serious problem which is basically that it does not start (!) All it does is showing the screen we see here and then, a few seconds later, it is gone with no message, no warning. Nothing. I have installed and reinstalled this software (I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit) to no avail. Trust me, I have followed all the suggestions found in http://turbotax.intuit.com/support/, which, by the way, are mostly related to Windows XP, no matter what they say. I have even tried the "Repair" option (in the uninstall program), waited patiently to finish and see some sort of "successfully repaired" message. But that is not true. Finally, I applied the manual update, to no avail, in spite of the message shown below, a false positive, and not true either. This is the first year I get to have such a frustrating experience with one of my favorite software applications... Is this related to the version of the .NET Framework you are running, or to Java? Go figure! Intuit, please get ready asap! [FYI, I tried this, and this]

I can't ever stress this enough: Install Windows XP Mode

Windows XP Mode running under Windows 7. Click and learn how.

I want to come back to the subject of Windows XP Mode. This is an application you can download and install, for free, if you are running Windows 7. It serves basically one main purpose: to run your Windows XP and legacy applications, within Windows 7 simply as another Windows application. Another key use is to keep old versions of software which, it just happens, when installed in Windows 7, may mess up your nice set up, for instance: Office 2003 and Acrobat 8, to name only a few. Last, but not least, you can continue using your company's old custom applications without a problem. The video, a 29'08" complete course on Windows XP Mode, provides an in depth look at the features and capabilities, as well as guidance for IT pros, of this must-have tool for Windows 7. Windows XP mode works seamlessly within Windows 7 where you can run all desired applications under one virtual machine (one window) or individually in its own window.

What's with Flash player in Internet Explorer?! ...and Firefox, and...

I had it already and I came to this sort of conclusion/question (at any rate, still a puzzle): Apparently if IE does not work properly (no PDF viewing, no Flash player, always asking for an update, even when Firefox or Chrome work fine doing the same, etc.) that is a sign of Windows problems. It could be spyware (?) How about Flash10u.ocx instead of Flash10e.ocx? What about the difference between the Shockwave Flash Object and the Flash Player? It seems to be that these are two different names for the same "add-on", not sure. In addition, there's Activex Version: 10.3.181.34 (as of this date) and Plug-in version 11.0.1.152. In addition, there is the Flash Player Settings Manager in the Control Panel, but that it's only for the 32-bit version. In other words, sort of confusing. Was this the reason why Steve Jobs (r.i.p.) literally censured this technology, back in 2010 ("we know that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash") and I would add the number one reason why Internet Explorer crashes and/or performs poorly sometimes.  Well, at least Adobe has a page on the subject. Solving this puzzle may be the key to a number of issues in Windows, and that goes for other Adobe products. Oh, yes, and for the other browsers!

Granted. Microsoft 2010 is supercool, but why preferably in 32-bit version?

One of my favorite features among the many nice, useful features in Office 2010 is the readily available screenshots of the applications (windows), running in your computer at a given time, that you can insert right there into the document you are creating. In the Ribbon, go to the 'Insert' tab and click on the 'Screenshots' icon. Neat. However, on a more general note, it would be interesting to know exactly why the 32-bit Office version (installed by default) is recommended over the 64-bit version, even for 64-bit systems. Perhaps this TechNet article about the 64-bit editions of Office 2010 gives some clues.

Google Chrome running in Windows 7

It's nimble. It's neat. Will I "switch" from Firefox or IE? Why? This is just another tool in my Web design arsenal. And speaking of tools, I like the Google Chrome right-click "Inspect element" developer tool, very similar to my favorite Firebug, in Firefox, which, in turn, resembles the Developer Tools in IE 8 (press F12 when installed) and the great Dragonfly in Opera. All of them wonderful, well thought out, and above all, USEFUL assistants in creating and analyzing web pages and Web sites. In Google Chrome, I also like the Task Manager and even more the Stats for nerds. Interestingly enough, in the options set up dialog box, for the default search engine you get to choose between Google, Yahoo! and Bing (!) I like choices. Vive la difference!

SOLUTION: Fixing Windows 7 dual boot with Windows Vista

You can have a dual boot computer with both Windows Vista and Windows 7, but be careful when installing Windows 7 (assuming that you had first Windows Vista). This is what happened to me: I installed Windows 7, on my "old" machine running Windows Vista (Yes, you can run a lot of new (and old) software) on an empty partition that used to hold Windows XP. At the time of the installation, I selected, surely enough, the reserved partition, asked the setup program to format it, followed the prompts and finally had a brand new Windows 7 RC on my VAIO computer. Everything OK, right? Wrong! I was hoping to see the dual boot screen to pick between Vista and Windows 7 but the machine went straight to Windows 7...! What happened to my more than a year old reliable Vista?! I kind of panicked but I was sure that my Windows Vista partition was intact (I could see it from Windows 7, with another letter, though) and knew also that boot.ini is no longer an option, but rather a more sophisticated and secure loader architecture called Boot Configuration Database or Store (BCD) handled by the Windows Boot Manager program (bootmgr), replacing the traditional Windows NT loader (ntldr). I probably could've used that program directly from within Windows 7 to view and modify the contents of the BCD, but it occurred to me that the original Vista disc would do the trick and I was right. I booted the computer with the Vista disc and selected 'restore' or 'repair', which gave the choice to repair the Windows Boot Manager startup option that was missing (i.e. Vista), and the boot option now reads "Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate (recovered)", creating a copy of the then current boot configuration data at C:\Boot\BCD.backup.0001. I know that this issue is far more complex and requires much more attention and that I was probably lucky. My main concern was that I needed some special partition for my particular PC, but that wasn't the case. On the other hand, what would you do if "Windows Vista no longer starts after you install an earlier version of the Windows operating system in a dual-boot configuration"? Find it here.

Windows 7 running in an old computer

For lack of available equipment I installed this Windows 7 Beta in an old Dell PowerEdge 700 server (year 2004), which if not for a lack of good video features has everything it takes to run this new OS. Here are the basic specs:

• Processor: Single Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 2.80 GHz


• Chipset: Intel E7210. Support for dual channel memory


• Front Side Bus: 800MHz


• Memory (RAM): 1.5 GB


• Video: Embedded ATI Rage XL with 8MB memory [Microsoft recommends a video card that supports DirectX 9 graphics with 128MB memory]
  


• Networking: Single embedded Intel Gigabit NIC, Intel PRO/100S; Intel PRO/1000 MT

The downside of not having the appropriate video card is manifold: you cannot use and appreciate the Windows Aero visual effects including transparency and Windows Flip 3D; in addition, hardware acceleration is not supported and a DirectX device cannot be created to open certain applications, which means basically you can not play games. However, watching (Internet) videos is possible. I will probably install a new video card in this computer, while I get a new laptop...