I “upgraded” Quicken 2010 from the 2008 version for a few months now. I very sorry I did not the “upgrade” as the 2010 version not only offers VERY LITTLE improvement over the 2008 version, in many respect it probably is going backwards as it seems being not only slower but also more buggy.
I have been using Quicken since the good old DOS days. At the time it was relatively fast. When Windows comes along the early Windows Quicken seems improves with each version. But things start to change around the 2007 version as it did not offer much improvement and 2008 was even worse as it has become VERY SLOW.
I have decided to skip the 2009 version as it did not appear to add any improvements. When the 2010 comes along, again from the list of “features”, I don’t see any improvements either. But I was growing inpatient with the speed of bugs of the 2008 and thought if those greedy Intuit people can not add features from year to year, at least they should improve the speed and get rid of some bugs. Well, I was very very wrong!
While it seems fixed the UTF bug for none ASCII characters, this version seems has more bugs than ever! I have already encountered the update bug that auto update failed. Recently, I even found out this supposedly money management program can not even count correctly! I have noticed the supposedly same net worth chart on two different panels is different! When I go in and check out the report it was even worst as I have no idea how it got some of the numbers. I first thought it was some how I change the setting on one panel but after exam every settings and make sure they are at default, I still got the same result. In fact, when I added a new net worth chart to the same panel, I got two different charts on the same panel and both of them disagree with the net worth report to boot!
Bugs aside, this version also getting slower and doing certain things on its own. Take download account transactions for example, in the past, if I want to update one bank account and one bank account only, I can go the bank web site and down load the info to the Quicken and that is it. But now after the down load from the bank is completed, the Quicken 2010 will go off on its own to connect, down load “financial institutions” information that I did not initiate and do not know what exactly were down loaded! Manually update stock price is also getting worse as it takes long time for it to bring up the screen and then again take a long time to update after the new prices were entered.
Beyond been buggy and slow, the Quicken 2010 also retain all the greedy trademark of Intuit that it will without asking for consent install whole bunch self-serving advertising icons on your desktop trying to sell more Intuit junks. I would have not problem for the advertisement if Quicken is a freeware or even shareware. But when I paid for a buggy and slow software that have close to zero improvement over previous versions, unwanted ads without consent just to show how bad and greedy this company is.
Many people don’t like Microsoft. But I think Intuit is even worse. Far worse. Too bad Microsoft decided to abandon Money as I really want to abandon Quicken.
The bottom line is if you have Quicken 2008 or even Quick 2007, don’t bother to upgrade. I wish I did not.
Thank You! I have had the same problem, I had to upgrade to 2010 because 2007 would no longer be able to download bank transactions as of May, 1, 2010.
I couldn’t agree more with his comments. I also upgraded from 2008 to 2010 (skipping 2009). I did so in the hopes of a less buggy version. But like his comments say, 2010 is even more buggy. It closes up without warning, it goes into “not responding” mode for sometimes minutes. Somethimes it can’t even open up one of my quicken files (I have 2, one for personal, one for business). I’ve had Quicken since 1993 and if someone has a better alternative, I’m all ears!
I too am HUGELY disappointed. Typically I was buying quicken every two years but only because I was forced to. Went from a completely fine and functional quicken 2007 to quicken 2010 because 2007 would no longer download my bank info.
2010 is a waste. Had issues right off the bat not begin able to install. Had to manually run some odd quicken wipe apps, then I still had to manually wipe out folders all over the HDD.
Then when the app finally installed, I could not register. Nothing would fix this. The option from Quicken support. Go around the registration screens with a keyboard shortcut. Um, ok.
Now… the performance of the app is slow like a badly coded webpage over dialup. This is NOT the level of performance a boxed app shoul display, just changing from the register to the overview screen is a 10 second affair.
Seriously thinking after only suffering through this application for 15 minutes of just calling it quits, and building a Excel spreadsheet on my own to keep track of things manually as it will be more reliable and 20 times faster to deal with.
All of the above error plus when I transferred my files from the 2006 version it updated my stock price online in all backup files and left me with an empty price history files that had price from 2000 on to today and no way to get it back.
if someone has a better alternative, I’m all ears!
I too upgraded from Quicken 2008 to 2010. The first thing I tried was to update stock prices. Guess what – Quicken 2010 froze my entire computer and I had to hard-reboot. I was having similar problems with Quicken 2008 which would freeze when downloading quotes and transactions.
I’m finding that many banks or financial instutitions offer a consolidated view of accounts. Fidelity, for example, has “Full View” that combines my investements both Fidelity and other, two bank accounts, two credit cards. My checking account offers similar capabilities. Full View shows all the banking and credit card transactions with views for budgets, asset allocation, etc.
I’m trying to convice myself that I don’t need Quicken and can rely on the Fidelity consolidated content. If so, it will be goodbye to Quicken, which I’ve used since it first came out (DOS). I sure hope I can dump Quicken this year!!!
Do not want to be to long winded.
2010 sucks!
Oh the pain, the pain… My wife ran a (I guess quarterly) update – Quicken 2010. After allowing it to do its thing, she got a very quick flash of an error message that said “Oh Snap! Something happened.” THere was other text but if blinked out too fast. Now we cannot even locate the qw.exe file. It is gone. The update log shows that it as well as a dog pile of dll files updated but then it got lost on itself and blew up.
I am running a hard drive file recovery to try and find the executable. This is incredible. I’ve been an IT guy for 30+ years and never seen a thing like this for supposedly valid update. Coupled with all your other comments, it’s stacking up heavily against Quicken.
Put me down as a Quicken customer that is fed up with Intuit and the games they are playing.
I refuse to upgrade to 2010 from 2007 and will manually update my stock portfolio and bank accounts now that they have turned this off and crippled the software.
Quicken 2010 is undoubtedly an unmitigated piece of trash… and as a full-time equities trader I absolutely loathe having to manually accept every stock transaction, as it literally takes 40 seconds for quicken to churn my disk and find whatever-the-hell it is looking for when I accept one. Multiply that by many thousands per year since I do a lot of sales at market prices… meaning there are 15 different micro-sales at slightly different prices for every actual stock transaction… each one of those micro-sales gets mapped back to the parent transaction. I have made over 1500 stock sales year to date, and this is only August.
Moneydance is an up-and-coming replacement to Quicken… I haven’t been brave enough to try it yet, but I’d sure love to hear from other stock traders that have…
Well, I will throw this in. After reading how everyone else was having trouble too. I uninstalled 2010 home & business. reinstalled 2008. Of course then it wouldn’t read the files. So I reinstalled 2010 hone & business, and now it works fine. I’m thinking that I must have set some setting that it didn’t like…it’s worth a try, or just uninstall, and reinstall..
It is worse for me. I have never used any type of system like this before. I’ll admit I qualify for the senior discount at some places, but I am not technically illiterate. I am beginning to think I need to take a class just to use this for a simple home budget system…yeah that’ll happen. It duplicates, and sometimes skips, entries. Their tech support answer? Go in and manually add or delete them. IT WAS MANUAL BEFORE! That’s why I bought this mess. I have been unsuccessful at trying to stop the automatic updater from running and it is slowing my PC way down. I am thinking I’ll go back to a pen and a tablet.
I don’t have Q2010 but i fear after all i’ve read. i have to upgrade to something since i can’t download transactions anymore.
Is there an alternative program that can import or read the .qdf quicken data files for my finances. i have about 10 years of history and dozens of accounts that i obviously would rather not transfer manually.
I’ve been using Microsoft Money since about 2001, without problems. That is until MS decided to end support for downloading transactions, which, to me, is a deal breaker. So I went out and got Quicken 2010.
What a strikingly poor piece of software. Sure, Money had its quirks, but they were not blatant BUGS. Intuit should take a chainsaw to Quicken, fire the UI design team, hire coders that don’t use BASIC, and start over with 2011. This POS uses tons of non-standard controls, has lots of awkward pop-ups, and is slow in doing almost everything. I’ve also stumbled on some bugs that duplicated downloaded transactions, and I wasted a whole day tracking down why my balances were off. With Money gone and Quicken sucking more each day, there’s a real opportunity for someone innovative to grab this market.
Still on Quicken 2000. Don’t need the bank downloads. Bought every version from 2006 through 2010 and tested them thinking there would be some improvements… minor only (like being able to recatagorize a group of records. Now that is nice. Overall it’s not to my liking and I sold them taking a loss each time. I was HOPING the reports and speed would improve but it can’t because of all the real-time calcs going on with averages of transactions and such. What a waste. Like they think I need to know all the averages of my expenses with a real-time mouse over function. Sheese. I can run a report if/when I want to know that. Too bloated for me and still with bugs. In a 2010 report, try to change the width of one of the columns. I dare ya. You will not be happy. I contracted them regarding this bug and they ignored me. Thanks Intuit. Ready for a Linux solution so I can give up on all the Microsoft software. Been a user since DOS Quicken 3. Wrote my own database before that but it was a chore with split transactions. Quicken was the savior back then in the early 90′s. Now it’s simply painful. Classic example of adding features to a product until its performance is useless.
One word about Quicken 2010 R10…Garbage! If you are considering upgrading, stay with what you have. Ever since I had to upgrade to Win7 x64 it’s been one headache after another. The people at Intuit should be ashamed.
I totally agree. Just like the commentator above, I have been using Quicken since the DOS days. 2010 has failed to launch after installation despite several calls to the Support Desk, and has been nothing but a pain to diagnose.
I made the same mistake.. One Step Updates now hang from time to time and can sit there for 5 minutes before completing. Other times it simply fails. I am debating on the 2011 version, but don’t want to give them more money if these issues are not fixed. I suspect they are not, or I would assume they would have released a patch..
I am probably being naive thinking they would release a patch (or that they have fixed anything). Every year they release a new version that costs another $40 and adds a chart or something. I really didn’t expect Quicken to cost $40 a year to run. With Microsoft Money’s exit (former user), they really have the market cornered on PC installed Checking.
I used Money for years and was happy, then when they pulled they plug, I had to switch to Quicken 2010 (which I thought would be good because I use TurboTax Home and Business.
What a huge disappointment. Q2010 is awful. The interface is stodgy and doesn’t allow easy movement between transations.
Plus the One Step update takes 20 mins! Give me a break.
I wish the guys at Mint.com would come up with a comprehensive package. I buy it in a second.
I with everyone else. Quicken users are trapped in the software. It’s just good enough to be better than anything else out there. But it’s just quirky enough that each time a new version comes out everyone updates hoping to get something better. Quicken seems to force upgrades on the consumer by changing the file format every couple of years. I’m using 2010 right now and funny enough I’ve had no problems until now since the 2011 version is available. Now all of a sudden I developed problems with 2010. Brand new computer with a fresh clean install of 2010 and I’ve had nothing but lock ups and unfinished updates along with unexplained happenings that are beyond explanation. I have no choice to upgrade to 2011.jaaeson@hotmail.com
I with everyone else. Quicken users are trapped in the software. It’s just good enough to be better than anything else out there. But it’s just quirky enough that each time a new version comes out everyone updates hoping to get something better. Quicken seems to force upgrades on the consumer by changing the file format every couple of years. I’m using 2010 right now and funny enough I’ve had no problems until now since the 2011 version is available. Now all of a sudden I developed problems with 2010. Brand new computer with a fresh clean install of 2010 and I’ve had nothing but lock ups and unfinished updates along with unexplained happenings that are beyond explanation. I have no choice to upgrade to 2011.
Quicken 2010 users! Don’t upgrade to 2011 to solve your problems. It still sucks! I held out from 2007 and had to buy Premier (for investments). Am I ever sorry. Upgrades offer very little, if anything & I refuse to let it link directly to my financial accounts, so I didn’t need it for that. The only plus for me was a fixed printer issue which they could have corrected with an update to the previous versions (lousy product support) which I already found a work around for.
The update & transaction processing is slow (e.g., a reinvested dividend input takes 20 times longer to accept; like it’s searching through the entire data base). The mouse wheel response is a line per click, in other words useless.
Pathetic whores!
I too seem to experience problems shortly after 2011 came out. The updating process can take a friken hour and locks the mouse every couple of seconds … pure crap
I had to update when they no longer allowed 2008 users to do online banking. ( WTF?!? ) I already had a copy of 2010 so I used that but now I’m thinking I should have bought 2011 as well because of course its been nothing but problems ever since I upgraded. Sigh.
What are other alternatives? Forcing an upgrade after only 2 years is BS and I had to reward their bad behavior with my continued patronage.