I use Intuit's QuickBooks for the bookkeeping chores associated with my small business. The version is QuickBooks Pro 2013, running on Windows 7 in a Virtual Machine (VMware Fusion) hosted on Mac hardware running OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan.

I have been using this configuration for many years, at least five years, probably longer, and it has worked just fine. Up until this past week.

To the best of my knowledge, I have not made any changes have been made in the software environment, and nobody else has access to this.

This past week, just about every action that I try to take in QuickBooks has caused dialog boxes to pop up, complaining that "An error has occurred in the script on this page." A URL is referenced, many (most?) have a file extension type of .js which I assume means Java script. Not all of the dialog box error messages have the same URL.

My first thought was a corrupted data file, but that seems to be ruled out as running the QuickBooks utilities to verify, and to rebuild, the data file does not cure the problem, and I have two separate data files, for two separate companies, both exhibiting the same type of errors.

This leads me to believe that the problem is associated with Explorer, as QuickBooks 2013 depends on Explorer for the User Interface.

My Windows technical knowledge is pretty limited (I'm a UNIX guy).

Intuit support is not available for this version of QuickBooks, they "sunset" the product after three years and this is an eight year old version.

My options, in order of preference, are

• First choice: Find fix the problem with the current configuration. I know that there are several people here with solid Windows knowledge, so I hope that one of you will be able to help with this.
  
  
• Second choice: Find a newer version of QuickBooks, but NOT the very latest. The current and recent versions are for rent, not for sale. I do not want to pay monthly (or annual) fees to use the software, I would rather just buy it, so that would mean a Windows version newer than 2013, but old enough to be a one-time purchase. Or the 2016 Mac version. Mac needs to be supported by El Capitan, or I could move up as far as High Sierra, but my hardware will not run any Mac OS newer than High Sierra. Windows version would need to run on Windows 7. If any of you have one of these older versions that you are no longer using, I would be happy to buy it from you.
  
  
• Third choice: Migrate to a bookkeeping / accounting system by a publisher other than Intuit. Pros and cons. Pro, I hate Intuit. Con, I have put a lot of time and effort into configuring and fine-tuning the QuickBooks setup, and I really, REALLY, do not look forward to starting from scratch in another system.

So, what I am looking for here, is either some help in solving the current Windows problem, or buying a slightly newer Windows or Mac version of QuickBooks from someone who might have upgraded.

Microsoft quit supporting Windows 7 a while ago and any important updates must be purchased and from what I've heard, aren't cheap and won't be around long as they are moving everything to 10. Not sure if this is the underlying problem or not, but finding a Windows 7 supported QuickBooks will be almost impossible.

Interesting, I have not looked into yet but lady at work just told me she started having a script error recently too. I do not know what version she has, I thought it was newer then 2013

and my personal QB 2019 has started being a little weird, no errors, lots of lags and window update/flashing.

These are both on up-to-date windows 10

You could try installing Windows 10 on the VM and then install QB. You don’t have to register the Windows copy. It will work just fine.

quote:

Originally posted by giz55792:

Microsoft quit supporting Windows 7 a while ago

I have not made any changes nor updates to the Windows 7 OS, and none to QuickBooks, for several years.

Windows and QuickBooks are run in a Virtual Machine that is not used for anything else. No email, no internet browsing, nothing.

So it is mysterious that a configuration that has been stable for years has just started to behave differently.

Can you set the VMs clock back a month?
Maybe some script/code signing expiration issue.

Does the VM have internet access? I wonder if QB talks to the mothership on a regular basis.

also take a look at suggestions on this page:
https://quickbooks.intuit.com/...ript-error/00/421387

quote:

Originally posted by eyrich:

Can you set the VMs clock back a month?
Maybe some script/code signing expiration issue.

Does the VM have internet access? I wonder if QB talks to the mothership on a regular basis.

also take a look at suggestions on this page:
https://quickbooks.intuit.com/...ript-error/00/421387

I don't know how to manipulate the clock / calendar in the VM. I'm guessing that it gets the time / date information from the host OS (Mac OS).

Re the linked article, yeah, I spent most of yesterday chasing that stuff, no joy. Nothing I did changed QuickBooks' behavior (misbehavior).

As I said, I'm beginning to believe that the problem is in the browser, rather than in QuickBooks, but it is showing up in QuickBooks because QB uses Explorer to manage its User Interface.

Is it possible to re-install the Windowsl browser (Explorer)? If so, how to do this?

When I open the data file in QuickBooks, I immediately get the dialog box shown below.

I dismiss it, and another pops up with a different URL. Dismiss a few and then things seem to work OK, but I don't trust it.

Just about any subsequent action will bring up these dialog boxes.

Assuming you have backups of your QB company files. Can you rebuild the VM instance and reinstall QB? Not 100% sure on IE but I don't think you can install or remove it as it's part of the OS.

The steenkin' problem has migrated. It is now appearing in two separate installations on two different computers, the iMac in my office at the hangar (where the problem first appeared), and now the MacBook Pro that I use at home.

Google finds a lot of people complaining about the same problem with QuickBooks "support" (really?) telling people to go through the same routine that eyrich linked to, above, and most people reporting that those steps do not cure the problem.

The thing that really puzzles me, I have had the QuickBooks updater turned off for a few years. And I'm reasonably sure that Intuit is not pushing any updates for the eight year old version that I am using. I do not understand why this problems appeared out of nowhere on a setup (two, actually) that has been stable for years.

I'm hoping that someone here had been using the Mac 2016 version, has moved on to a newer version, and would be willing to sell the 2016 version to me. The Mac version, of course, does not use Microsoft's Internet Explorer to manage the displays.

I am not able to find the Mac 2016 version at any of the usual places (Amazon, eBay, etc.).

Does that have to do with how Intuit wants QB to constantly call home to associate with an Intuit account?

QB discontinued support for Windows 7 in 2019.

As I opened QB this morning, it froze for a LONG time. I waited it out, doing other things, and what pops up but a SURVEY! 'Would you recommend QB to anyone'. I wonder if the popup for the survey is killing it for you? Good Luck!

quote:

Originally posted by dbgeek:

As I opened QB this morning, it froze for a LONG time. I waited it out, doing other things, and what pops up but a SURVEY! 'Would you recommend QB to anyone'. I wonder if the popup for the survey is killing it for you? Good Luck!

I have not seen any survey, nor have I seen it mentioned by any of the dozens of QuickBooks users who are complaining about the same problem that I have.

So, I would guess that the survey has nothing to do with my problem. If Intuit offered a survey to me, they would probably not be very happy with my response.

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quote:

Originally posted by CBQ60:

QB discontinued support for Windows 7 in 2019

True, but that has nothing to do with the problem that I am seeing, as many (most?) of the other complaints about this problem that I am seeing online, are from users of Windows 10.

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quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:

Does that have to do with how Intuit wants QB to constantly call home to associate with an Intuit account?

I do not believe so. What I have been able to find so far, is that the URLs that are involved in the failed scripts are used to enhance or optimize the way that QuickBooks uses Internet Explorer to manage display in the QB user interface. This is analogous to what we called the "presentation layer" when I worked on software development for UNIX-based customer service systems at BellSouth.

I might suggest migrating your QB to a cloud hosted version.

You would only pay the hosting fees which I think are ~$50 per mo...

We use Right Networks and it has been rock solid.

JB

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
I am not able to find the Mac 2016 version at any of the usual places (Amazon, eBay, etc.).

In case that search doesn't pan out, and you need to broaden your search, I run Windows 7 and Quickbooks Pro 2015 and that works just fine.

The only guess I have about the source of a software problem that comes up out of the blue on multiple machines at about the same time is some sort of automatic update. Does the emulated version of Windows running on Mac allow a recovery to an earlier state?

Six hundred smackeroos / year

QuickBooks is really overkill for what I need, but I have not found an alternative yet.

I just need to issue maybe half dozen invoices / month, pay about the same number of bills, re-order parts and supplies once or twice a month, handle payroll for one part-time employee, and track this stuff.

QuickBooks is the only reason that I use Windows for anything. Royal pain in the ass, but definitely not worth $600.00 annually for my needs. I'll learn to use an abacus before that.

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:

I run Windows 7 and Quickbooks Pro 2015 and that works just fine.

The only guess I have about the source of a software problem that comes up out of the blue on multiple machines at about the same time is some sort of automatic update. Does the emulated version of Windows running on Mac allow a recovery to an earlier state?

Your setup, Windows 7 and QB 2015, would do the job for me, but I have not found a legit copy of QB 2015 that I can buy, register, and activate.

As far as a roll-back, I probably could have and should have taken snapshots of the Windows 7 virtual machine, but I did not, mainly because QuickBooks is the ONLY thing that I do in Windows, so I assumed that solid backups of the QB data file would protect me. I never thought about something like this happening to the Windows setup.

Have you looked into Unix-/Mac-based alternatives to QB?

It is my understanding IE and its underlying components are soon to be EOL'd (if IE, itself, isn't already) and it is my understanding that, at some point, future MS O/S updates will be removing IE components from installs. This means anything that's dependent upon those underlying components will cease working.