I bought a new laptop. It has Windows 10. Getting Microsoft Money to run on it the way I wanted took a few tweaks. I’m documenting them here in case someone else also wants to do the same thing.
Microsoft Money is a software program on Windows for tracking your accounts, similar to Quicken. Microsoft stopped selling it in 2011. They made the last version a free download for everyone (see Money Plus Sunset Deluxe and Money Plus Sunset Home and Business). Even if you never used Microsoft Money before, you can still start using it now, and it’s all free. Other than not being able to automatically download transactions and securities prices, the software still works. I had no problem in installing it or running it on Windows 10.
The new generation online and mobile account tracking applications such as Mint or Personal Capital are easier to use but desktop applications such as Microsoft Money or Quicken still have their advantages in some ways. See Mint and Personal Capital vs Quicken and Microsoft Money.
Video tutorial of how a BudgetPulse user would import their financial bank statements from a Quicken or MS Money format that may be a QFX, OFX, or QIF file. Convert data from Microsoft Money files. If you are using Microsoft® Money for Windows 2007 or 2008, you can convert your data for Quicken for Windows. More information is available on the Web at Quicken Support.
- Anyway, still looking for a desktop money tool that will import Quicken files. Tried GnuCash but it botched the conversion/import and although free, offers neither the versatility nor the user.
- Due to incompatibilities in the format of regional Microsoft Money files, and sometimes due to corruption, and other times just to convert a Quicken File into Money, it is sometimes necessary to export all of your accounts into QIF files and then import them all again in a clean/new or the same file.
- If you are using an older version of Quicken or Microsoft Money, you may need to select a 2-digit year format, since the older versions may not understand the 4-digit year format. Numbers: Select the appropriate number format for your version of Quicken or Microsoft Money (1,000.00 or 1.000,00).
PocketSense
With some initial input from me, a third-party developer Robert developed ways to download transactions and stock and fund prices and update them in Microsoft Money. Because Robert did a much better job than my initial primitive attempt, I now use Robert’s system called PocketSense.
The setup is well documented on the PocketSense website. This takes care of updating the stock and fund prices, and downloading transactions from banks and brokers that still support direct downloads in Money’s OFX file format.
Import Quicken Download
However, many banks and brokers now stopped offering direct downloads in Money’s OFX file format. Because Quicken is still around, most of them still offer downloads from their websites in the Quicken Web Connect format. If you just save the downloaded file and you change the file’s extension from .qfx to .ofx, you can import the transactions into Money by double-clicking on the downloaded file.
If you want to skip the manual steps of saving the file and changing the file extension, you will have to do a few tweaks to make the computer open the .qfx file directly as if it’s a .ofx file. After these tweaks the download will go directly from your browser into Microsoft Money.
Add .qfx Extension
First you have to make the computer understand the .qfx extension. You need to add a few registry entries. There is a registry file in Reg file to import Quicken QFX files automatically into Money on Ameridan’s Microsoft Money Offline Weblog, but running it didn’t make it work for me. Following the manual edits in the comments from James Pelham Burn worked.
If you log in as an administrator account only to install software and you log in as a regular account for routine use, make sure you do the registry edits in both accounts.
Associate .qfx With Money Import Handler
There’s one more registry change before it all works. In RegEdit, find the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTApplicationsmnyimprt.exe. Delete the NoOpenWith entry. This makes the Money Import Hander appear in the Open With … list and you won’t get the error “The program you have selected cannot be associated with this file type. Please choose another program.”
Now download a transaction file in Quicken Web Connect format and save it somewhere. Right click on it and select Open With. Navigate to Program Files (x86)Money PlusMnyCoreFiles (hidden folder, just type it in) and choose mnyimprt.exe. Check the box to always open this type of file with this program.
It takes some work up front but after you are all done, you can just download transactions from the websites of your banks and brokers in the Quicken Web Connect format. The download will go directly into Microsoft Money.
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Microsoft Money Import Quicken Login
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Quicken seemed to be the odds-on favorite to gain traction with many previous Money users. Quicken isn't a bad option, but it was a step backwards for most Money users. When the Money death bell rang at Microsoft, Intuit quickly began working on an improved import feature for Money users. After all, it's not every day that your chief competitor calls it quits. With the release of Quicken 2010, the full import functionality was (supposedly) implemented. I have never tested it myself, but I would guess that it (mostly) works as advertised, and switching to Quicken was likely a palatable option for many users. We also have the option of just starting from scratch, with a different finance package, but there won't be support for importing Money data. There are a few open-source and free options available as well, but (again) those do not import Money data directly, requiring instead that the user 'export' the data and then 'import' into the new software (which mostly doesn't work).
Quicken Money App
Perhaps it would be better to just dump Money and get it over with, going through the pain of a transition rather than implementing a fix. My opinion was (and still is) that keeping Money alive for as long as possible is a better option. Which of the new-breed software packages will thrive and grow, and which will bite the dust? I have no idea, but I do know that I don't want to be a guinea pig, or lose all my past data.