Solved Microsoft Money Sunset Plus (want to use in Windows 11)

Berton thank you so much! That worked a treat and I am able to open original file. You're a star!

You're welcome, glad to have helped.

I upgraded to Windows 11 back in the Spring. I was concerned about Microsoft Money Sunset being buggy. But I am pleased to report that I have not had any problems whatsoever. I just hope future Windows updates in Win 11 don't screw it up since technically MS Money Sunset is no longer supported. But, again, so far so good! I manually enter my information into the register; and then every few days I download the OFX files from my Credit Union so I can reconcile the account. Super quick and easy, as always with MS Money.

Appreciate the report. Only real issue I've had with programs such as Quicken, Money, Peachtree [now SAGE] and others is the needed updated for features many users don't need such as tracking investments. QuickBooks was more designed for business. I give suggestions for the simple things of check register templates for spreadsheet programs such as those here:

Hi Guys, newbie here.

My question is slightly different from most that I can see on this and other threads, as follows;

I got a new windows 11 PC the other day, and installed from CD disc the MS money 2005 version, it went okay, and I could start from scratch if I wanted to.

However, I have about 22 years of personal transactions and I really do not want to start all over again and lose all that history.

I have numerous versions of the file saved to various hard drives and the cloud before I stopped using the old PC. I saved my file to a general hard disk location, as opposed to the path that the program specifies, which is (c:\users\user\documents[file name] and thought all I had to do was select file -> open and point it to the .mny file and that would be it ... it seemed simple enough.

Once the file is selected and the only option you can do is hit the next button, which immediately shows this error dialogue box (see below). I have tried saving the file in the path/location that money wants, but this has also made no difference. The dialogue box also says to "use a recent backup file" which i have also tried, againi from either of the two different file locations, but again nothing happens. Are there any suggetions as to how i can get round this?



From what i gather this does not seem related to having IE6, as mentioned on various similar threads. I also had Money running on various operating systems through the years and was using it until last week on a windows 10 machine ... I was not wanting to try anything with the registry at this stage, i can't see anything in the propertiies of the file either that would cause an issue.

Any help appreciated.

D

What I've seen with some old programs the mention of Internet Explorer comes during setup. I was just looking on the Internet and found this page that may speak to the problem [a guess based upon the time in your Profile]:

Berton said:

What I've seen with some old programs the mention of Internet Explorer comes during setup. I was just looking on the Internet and found this page that may speak to the problem [a guess based upon the time in your Profile]:

What's an MNY File and How Do You Open One?

An MNY file is a Microsoft Money file that can store financial information. Learn how to open an MNY file or convert MNY to another file format.

www.lifewire.com

View attachment 45312

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Thanks for your quick reply, much appreciated

unfortunately, I am in the UK and not using the sunset US version. The link you provided mainly helps with that issue.

It does make it clear that the file extensions could easily get mixed up .... however, I have been careful to select the correct thing. So at the moment, I am stuck.

Thanks

Older applications assume full access rights to the system and fail if they cannot modify a file (usually located at the restricted access C:\Windows\System32 folder). Windows 8 and higher restrict access to certain folders unless you run the application with Administrator rights. To avoid any issues due to access rights modify the application shortcut to always run as Administrator. More recent applications don't fail because they ask to be granted Administrator rights before doing any restricted operation.

A Search of the Internet brings up some pages with suggestions that may help.

I haven't actually used Money, but if you run installation with Administrator rights and then configure the shortcut to always run as Administrator, you shouldn't have any compatibility issues. It should behave exactly like in earlier Windows versions.

PS: Yes, I do have installed it in Windows 11 to test compatibility. It installed OK and seems to work OK.

spapakons said:

I haven't actually used Money, but if you run installation with Administrator rights and then configure the shortcut to always run as Administrator, you shouldn't have any compatibility issues. It should behave exactly like in earlier Windows versions.

PS: Yes, I do have installed it in Windows 11 to test compatibility. It installed OK and seems to work OK.

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Hi spapakons

thanks for the suggestion ... However, I have tried running the actual program file as administrator, using the "right mouse" option. I have also gone into the program location and got the properties and went to the compatibility tab and selected "run the program as an administrator".

Neither of these things made a difference.

I have also gone to the windows button found the program and ran it as administrator, but nothing worked.

I have also tried moving the location of my data file to be "within the folder structure of the program", but nothing seems to make a difference.

I might just need to uninstall and try it all over again, as I can't just remember exactly what option(s) i chose at the very beginning of this process ...

D

UPDATE on 17/11/2022 at 16:00 UK time

per above i have now ininstalled the programa and popped the CD back in and and re-installed it wilh no issues.

I have then simply gone to the file -> open option and pointed it to the file on my hard drive

Once you put in the the correct password, the following message appears;


at this point the only thing you can do uis hit the next button, then the same error messsage appears:



so i am right back at the start again and it is frustrating as to why it simply won't open the correct file.

Cheers

D

Was that a newer version than the one you created the file with? In that case you must try finding and download the same version as the one you created the file. It might work better without any conversion. Have you tried to copy-paste the file in another folder and open it from there? Maybe this is the main file and there are more dependent files. On order to open it properly you should have all relevant files in the same folder.

spapakons said:

Was that a newer version than the one you created the file with? In that case you must try finding and download the same version as the one you created the file. It might work better without any conversion. Have you tried to copy-paste the file in another folder and open it from there? Maybe this is the main file and there are more dependent files. On order to open it properly you should have all relevant files in the same folder.

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I have tried everything I can think of ... however your last sentence, you might be onto something. I was always puzzled how there were "MS files" all over the place on various drives, that I never put them there are such (on the old PC) .... but in preparation for the new computer, I only copied over one file, the .mny file .... however looking at the program there is mention of the backup file as well ... my main issues is that in the new PC, I moved over 2 other "old hard drives" from the old PC, one of which was a 250gb SSD drive which was my old local drive. The problem was I wanted to utilize it for my music and it was completely full, so I formatted the SSD and copied over my music to it ... so in the off chance that there was an MS Money file in there that might have been what I was looking for (not guaranteed that it would have been) ... it is gone now.

That said I did copy over all my files from old hard drives onto a 4TB external before I started, but I have looked over them and they are the files I already have been working with.

I think I am "goosed", as they say... I appear to be able to start over as the program works no problem at all, but I have just lost 22 years of data ... which was really useful to look back and search for things ... saved me on a good few occasions.

D

I don't want to bring the bad news but the error you see when trying to open the file is probably because it cannot find the necessary secondary files to proceed. Is there any converter you could try to convert to another format? Probably a repair utility foy Money files to try repairing it?.

Thanks, spapakons & Berton for all your replies and suggestions.

I have good news however, like a dog with a bone I have spent hours searching how to solve this and also how to maybe extract everything to an excel file if need be. I do work in finance and spreadsheets are my thing, but clearly, I would prefer the program to work!

Anyway, I eventually discovered this site: You cannot open your Money file after reinstallation [Microsoft (MS) Money FAQ and Help] which word for word displayed the exact error message I was getting (see above screenshots)... better still it explained that a patch was released by Microsoft to cure this issue, (UK and other country versions)

Many people (like me) who had it installed before 2011 would be unaware that there even was a patch and what it actually does. It only crops up when you re-install from a disc, as I did.

I downloaded the patch from here: Money 2005 Patches made available by Microsoft [Microsoft (MS) Money FAQ and Help] took about 5 seconds to install, and the second I ran MS Money, it loaded with 22 years of figures .... total result .... a few laps of the room and air punches followed, absolutely delighted getting this back

Just need to update about 2 weeks of manual input ... but that is the way I always did it... so happy to get that done over the weekend.

I have saved the patch to my computer and a small text file explaining to myself what I did and how to solve this issue, I will back this information to the cloud as well.

Once again thanks for your input.

D

I will also download the patch, just in case, you never know

AlterBridge_Fan said:

UPDATE on 17/11/2022 at 16:00 UK time

per above i have now ininstalled the programa and popped the CD back in and and re-installed it wilh no issues.

I have then simply gone to the file -> open option and pointed it to the file on my hard drive

Once you put in the the correct password, the following message appears;
View attachment 45447

at this point the only thing you can do uis hit the next button, then the same error messsage appears:

View attachment 45448

so i am right back at the start again and it is frustrating as to why it simply won't open the correct file.

Cheers

D

Click to expand...

I'm a programmer and this caught my eye as I was getting ready to test Money Plus on Windows 11. I've seen something like that before in other aspects... C:\Users... (Documents, Desktop, etc...) has what I describe as "special security" beyond what we might expect... and often software development must take place outside that path for that reason. Try this as a workaround: Copy your file to what I call a "Normal" path... make a folder such as make a C:\Temp or C:\MyMoney whatever... and then open it from there. I really hope that helps... I'm getting ready to test this myself

BobFromAcct said:

I'm a programmer and this caught my eye as I was getting ready to test Money Plus on Windows 11. I've seen something like that before in other aspects... C:\Users... (Documents, Desktop, etc...) has what I describe as "special security" beyond what we might expect...

Click to expand...

Welcome to Eleven Forum.

Your 'special security' is almost certainly Windows Security's Ransomware Protection in action (aka Controlled Folder Access). The C:\Users\<user>\Documents folder is one of those that it protects. Those of us who have had it enabled since it was first introduced in Windows 10 are used to seeing such 'file does not exist' or 'cannot save' messages for many 3rd party or older programs.

We're also used to dealing with it. The solution is simple, add the app that has just been blocked to the list of allowed apps.

Bree said:

Welcome to Eleven Forum.

Your 'special security' is almost certainly Windows Security's Ransomware Protection in action (aka Controlled Folder Access). The C:\Users\<user>\Documents folder is one of those that it protects. Those of us who have had it enabled since it was first introduced in Windows 10 are used to seeing such 'file does not exist' or 'cannot save' messages for many 3rd party or older programs.

We're also used to dealing with it. The solution is simple, add the app that has just been blocked to the list of allowed apps.

Add or Remove Allowed Apps for Controlled Folder Access in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to add and remove allowed apps for Controlled Folder Access in Microsoft Defender Antivirus in Windows 11. Microsoft Defender Antivirus is an antivirus software that is included in Windows 11 and can help protect your device from viruses, malware, and other...

www.elevenforum.com

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Hi, Bree! Oh, not in this case but that's a great suggestion for AlterBridge_Fan to check:

I think it's elsewhere in the API.. since probably around the time Windows started sandboxing system files such as spapakons mentioned