MSMoney in Linux (and soon MacOS) 64-bit edition

[N G]

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QerT2ylQzDK4an76atBpcdivF9Hy-nIa?usp=drive_link

The previous versions are still available but msmoneysetup.zip_64bit_6Mar2025 is the future. When Money is running I can't tell the difference whether in a 32 or 64bit prefix. This is VERY good.

From the README:

- 32bit prefix no longer required. Install.sh installs Money into a WoW64 prefix. Removed items referencing "32bit only" discussion.
 - A 64bit WoW64 prefix future-proofs this project and MacOS support is likely.
 - Running Install.sh would back up sample.mny from the prefix every time but now it is ignored.

From Install.sh

2Mar2025 - Defined WINE Environment Variables for easier testing and editing
6Mar2025 - Expanded the use of environment variables for easier testing/editing/readability
- Testing the prefix without winetricks installing ie7/iertutil. IE7 files are manually copied, dll overrides set in winecfg, and registered.
- Added logic to detect operating system (Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch/Manjaro, MacOS in progress) for version information
- and adjusts Program Files / Program Files (x86) and system32 / syswow64.
- Doesn't back up sample.mny anymore.
- WINEARCH=win64 is now the default

The big reason this works is because IE7 isn't "installed" but extracted from the installer and copied to C:\Windows\syswow64 and C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Money\MNYCoreFiles. Money knows which dlls it needs and uses them. With dlloverrides I specify which dlls are to be used (builtin = wine, native = from Windows/IE7). Since we don't actually need to run IE7 directly it doesn't need to be installed with all of its registry information.

Barring any craziness with WoW64 I'll be working next on MacOS.

Nathan

[-Kevin N]

Hi Nathan,

Re: 64-bit_6Mar2025

I deleted the existing instances of msmoneyprefix and msmoneysetup

Extracted the 64-bit zip and installed the requisite MS Money ext

I ran Install.sh.  I took a considerably longer time to complete than previous versions.  To the point that I thought it was failing.  

BUT it did complete and MS Money installed and runs as expected.

I imported a couple of .qif files - no problems.  Later tonight, I'll import the .ofx files from Pocketsense

I changed the DPI setting to 100 using winecfg with no issues.

I've attached the wine-install.log for your perusal.

This looks to be another successful build.

-Kevin N

[N G]

Great! 

I experienced the same with the delay, it’s a function of manually “installing” ie7. Stand by for a second 64bit msmoneysetup since I was able to determine that only a few dlls actually need to be registered. 

Install.sh goes out and gets ie7 itself now, not via winetricks. Also, ie7 and winecalc aren’t downloaded every time anymore. It detects if they are already there. ie7 is downloaded to msmoneysetup/winetricks, not to your home  .cache/winetricks folder. Also, ie7 provides its own iertutil so that’s why we don’t need that from winetricks anymore as well. 

Nathan

[N G]

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QerT2ylQzDK4an76atBpcdivF9Hy-nIa?usp=drive_link

msmoneysetup.zip_64bit_7Mar2025 is up, the installation took about 3 minutes on my aging 2015 laptop.

Take it for a spin and see what you think.

Nathan

[N G]

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QerT2ylQzDK4an76atBpcdivF9Hy-nIa?usp=drive_link

msmoneysetup.zip_64bit_7Mar2025_v2 is up, I figured out a way to process the dlls in parallel so it shaved a minute off installation.

Nathan

[-Kevin N]

Hi Nathan,

Re: 64-bit_7Mar2025_v2

Installation comes in around 2 mins.  Very much improved.

-Kevin N.

[Gerardus Doedee]

Great news. Will start testing and get back to you.

[Gerardus Doedee]

Here's my first stab in my XUbuntu 22 VM

Deleted existing msmoneyprefix and msmoneysetup folders

Extracted 64-bit_7Mar2025_v2 and prepped

Ran ./Install.sh

While install process was running: Got prompted to install Gecko. Clicked "Cancel" on Gecko install

Money install proceeded and finished (with clean exit of MSMoney)

Started Money using MsMoney.sh shortcut on desktop (this second start executed to allow for msmoneyquotes to kick in). Clean exit of MSMoney.

Ran winecfg.sh from /msmoneyinstaller/extras and configured Graphics and Desktop Integration

Started Money using MsMoney.sh shortcut on desktop again. Changes to Graphics and Destop Integration take effect. Clean exit.

Ran winetricks.sh from /msmoneysetup/extras (to install (older) version of LibreOffice into /msmoneyprefix). Winetricks.sh did not run

Created copy of winetricks.sh named winetricksGerardus.sh with contents as listed below

#!/bin/bash

export WINEPREFIX=~/msmoneyprefix
export WINESETUP=~/msmoneysetup
export WINEDEBUG=+loaddll,+warn

$WINESETUP/winetricks/winetricks-2025

Ran winetricksGerardus.sh

Winetricks started successfully

Used "Run Uninstaller" function to install LibreOffice in /msmoneyprefix

Note that Mono is installed in /msmoneyprefix (See attached)

Tested LibreOffice in /msmoneyprefix. Seems to operate fine

Install log attached

Cheers,

Gerardus

[-Kevin N]

Hi Nathan,

Just confirming Gerardus' findings...  

winetricks.sh does not run and throws the following error:

./winetricks.sh: line 11: /home/kevin/msmoneysetupwow64/winetricks/winetricks-2025: No such file or directory

-Kevin N.

[N G]

Thanks guys, I'll make the change. To be honest it was quite the struggle to get ie7 going in 64bit I'm not surprised that I missed this lol

For Gerardus, just curious why you are installing Windows libreoffice instead of using the native Linux version? As for Mono and Gecko, I think I'm not going to block them. I've been testing with them installed and haven't seen any issues. Maybe wine doesn't see a browser installed so that's why it wants gecko?  I still don't understand the WoW64 part very well (running 32bit programs in a 64bit prefix) so I'm trying for "do no harm."

My friend tested the latest msmoneysetup on his Arch Linux machine and everything worked as expected. I think we're good on the Linux side of msmoneysetup until someone comes along running opensuse or something else, but that should only require minor adjustments. wine-stable (version 10) is good until January 2026 so when wine 11 comes out we'll see what happens. Hopefully any changes should also be minor. In the meantime I'll run with wine-staging and see if problems come up when I run Install.sh

MSMoney is working on my M1 MacMini with Sequoia. There is a bit more command line setup required (installing wine, winetricks, cabextract, wget) but I think it can all be scripted as well. The last part is importing statements from pocketsense. I need to make ofx and qfx files associated with MSMoney but MacOS doesn't seem to have an easy way. Normally you right-click on the file, Get Info, and then tell it what program to open the file. Mac doesn't "see" wine exe's. I used a program called Whiskey to wrap around the wine prefix as a test and it worked but it's more manual configuration for the user. Next I'm looking at converting the whole prefix into an mac "application" with a wrapper. If that works then we're good.  If anyone has any insight to MacOS (or has any desire to run MSMoney on a Mac) I'm all ears. Mac is sufficiently different than Linux so editing pocketsense to be universal is pretty involved. At least for the time being my goal is to have a separate msmoneysetup for Linux and Mac.

Nathan

[N G]

I added a new msmoneysetup.zip, only change is the correction to the winetricks.sh file as mention by Gerardus and Kevin. I've named it with Linux in the name in anticipation of having a separate MacOS zip file.

Ran out of time the last few days on MacOS testing, I hope to get back to it soon.

Nathan

[Gerardus Doedee]

Thanks Nathan, congrats on your success with MacOs also.

Re your question "Just curious why you are installing Windows Libreoffice instead of using the native Linux version?" It has to do with the "Linked Files" feature that I use.  Right-click on a transaction with a linked file, and select "Open Linked File"... 

If the linked file is a pdf, the Linux-installed PDF reader will open the file (both in XUbuntu 22 and Fedora 41 have Atril Document Viewer installed, which opens the pdf). This is the expected behavior.

If the linked file is an MS Office document (Word, Excel etc), an error is thrown in both XUbuntu 22 and Fedora 41 which seems to come from the msmoneyprefix itself: "There is no Windows program configured to open this type of file". See image below. This is not the expected behavior.

Yes, Xubuntu 22 has LibreOffice installed (by default) but the msmoneyprefix does not seem to be aware of this. Fedora 41 does not have LibreOffice installed by default)

So, in order to prevent this error "There is no Windows program configured to open this type of file", I install LibreOffice in msmoneyprefix. The version I install is the last version of LibreOffice approved for Windows XP. This seems to work fine in both 64 and 32 bit msmoneyprefixes

What causes this issue? I don't know. It's not distro-specific. Both Xubuntu and Fedora 41 throw the error. What the 2 distros have in common is the windowing system: XFCE. I have not tested this with other windowing systems (KDE, Wayland etc.) on either distro. I don't have the time, realistically speaking. I'm not retired yet...)

Testing Linux_11Mar2025

Fedora 41

Deleted exiting msmoneysetup folder

Extracted and prepped new msmoneysetup folder (Linux_11Mar2025)

Ran ./Install.sh
Went thu install process. Did NOT get prompted to install Gecko

./Install.sh finished successfully

Money behaving as expected with reg files being saved / retained on re-install

Winetricks behaving as expected (upon first run, found both Gecko and Mono installed)

Xubuntu 22

Deleted exiting msmoneysetup folder

Extracted and prepped new msmoneysetup folder (Linux_11Mar2025)

Ran ./Install.sh
Went thu install process. Got prompted to install Gecko

Allowed Gecko to be installed while ./Install.sh was running

./Install.sh finished successfully

Money behaving as expected with reg files being saved / retained on re-install

Winetricks behaving as expected (upon first run, found both Gecko and Mono installed)

Cheers,

Gerardus

[N G]

Gerardus,

Yup, same for me. But! I know what to add to the registry and now docx files open for me. I looked at how pdf files are mech’d and duplicated for docx. As you suspected the problem is in the prefix.

I can add this to msmoneysetup as another reg file, what else do you need besides docx files?

Nathan

[Gerardus Doedee]

Whoa Nathan, good stuff. However, are you sure you want to go this deeply "into the weeds"?

The reasons why I'm asking this are twofold:

1: It has been my observation that you intend to keep install routines universal, that is, they should work on any DebianUbuntu or Fedora/Redhat distro, correct? With your offer to create more reg files for opening doc/docx, xls/xlsx with the "host" Linux-based corresponding  apps, aren't you kinda moving away from keeping your install routines universal? If your are going keep things "universal", how are you going to know if a Linux-equivalent app is even installed on the Linux machine? Ubuntu has LibreOffice installed by default, but Fedora does not. And who says that your Linux user doesn't have a Linux-equivalent app installed OTHER than LibreOffice? You would have to "tickle" the underlying Linux system from your msmoneyprefix / msmoneysetup  folder and if out if a Linux-equivalent app is even installed, and, if so, which one. Then you could create the appropriate reg files for whichever Linux-equivalent app is installed... Seems like a lot of work.

which brings me to the next thing:

 

2: What is the use case? You've seen the other thread about "How Many Money Users DO We Think Are Out There" . The follow-up question is: Of how many Money users are out there, which subset uses the "Linked File" feature? I'm willing to guess that there's not a lot of demand for this capability.

That being said and since you asked, here's my list of files that I would like to see opened from MSMoney with a native Linux app when using the Linked File feature:

pdf (working already)

doc/docx

xls/xlsx

ppt/pptx

Any image file (png, jpg, img etc, etc, etc)

zip files (way-way low on my list of priorities): Sometimes I have more than one file that I want to link with a transaction. Money only allows only 1 file to be linked to transaction, so if there are multiple files you want to link, the only way I know how to do it is to put all the files you want to link in a zip file. Once that's done you can link the  1 zip file (containing all the other files) to the transaction.

I look forward to seeing your response. Again, all of this is probably more work than is worth it....

Cheers,

Gerardus

[N G]

Hi Gerardus,

Responses are in-line below:

On Thursday, March 13, 2025 at 6:41:16 AM UTC+9 gerardu...@gmail.com wrote:

Whoa Nathan, good stuff. However, are you sure you want to go this deeply "into the weeds"?

🤣 I’m already “in the weeds”

 

The reasons why I'm asking this are twofold:

1: It has been my observation that you intend to keep install routines universal, that is, they should work on any DebianUbuntu or Fedora/Redhat distro, correct? With your offer to create more reg files for opening doc/docx, xls/xlsx with the "host" Linux-based corresponding  apps, aren't you kinda moving away from keeping your install routines universal? If your are going keep things "universal", how are you going to know if a Linux-equivalent app is even installed on the Linux machine? Ubuntu has LibreOffice installed by default, but Fedora does not. And who says that your Linux user doesn't have a Linux-equivalent app installed OTHER than LibreOffice? You would have to "tickle" the underlying Linux system from your msmoneyprefix / msmoneysetup  folder and if out if a Linux-equivalent app is even installed, and, if so, which one. Then you could create the appropriate reg files for whichever Linux-equivalent app is installed... Seems like a lot of work.

I’ve learned I have to be flexible on what is useful, makes sense, and my own capabilities (or lack thereof). The good thing with this is I don’t need to know what is installed on the host side, if anything. I only need to create in the registry file types and what to do with them. This is actually a universal goal since it will work the same in MacOS as well. Because pdfs worked already, I learned that they are configured to “open the default application”. MS Office file types aren’t even there by default so all I need to do is add them. In the case of Fedora, true that there isn’t an office suite already installed but the user can just install it, and the registry info in the prefix won’t affect things one way or the other. In other words, I don’t hard code what program opens, I just give it a way out. 

As far as universal installer, that’s what I mean about flexibility. MacOS will have to have a separate msmoneysetup from Linux. I’m ok with this.

which brings me to the next thing:

 

2: What is the use case? You've seen the other thread about "How Many Money Users DO We Think Are Out There" . The follow-up question is: Of how many Money users are out there, which subset uses the "Linked File" feature? I'm willing to guess that there's not a lot of demand for this capability.

I think I just want to make MSMoney as feature complete as possible. I haven’t used Linked Files myself but mostly because I didn’t know about the feature. Maybe I will in the future but since you do, that’s enough for me. 

 

That being said and since you asked, here's my list of files that I would like to see opened from MSMoney with a native Linux app when using the Linked File feature:

pdf (working already)

doc/docx

xls/xlsx

ppt/pptx

Any image file (png, jpg, img etc, etc, etc)

Shouldn’t be a problem. I think image files work already? 

 

zip files (way-way low on my list of priorities): Sometimes I have more than one file that I want to link with a transaction. Money only allows only 1 file to be linked to transaction, so if there are multiple files you want to link, the only way I know how to do it is to put all the files you want to link in a zip file. Once that's done you can link the  1 zip file (containing all the other files) to the transaction.

I’ll look into this. Not sure how this one will work but a little tinkering should reveal something.

 

I look forward to seeing your response. Again, all of this is probably more work than is worth it....

The real work of understanding how it is mechanized is done. No worries, I think it’s worth it.  And for anyone who doesn’t use the feature the registry edits won’t hurt anything. 

No matter what I want MSMoney to be useful and relevant for a LONG time. So if Windows 12/13/whatever stops supporting MSMoney then we’re down to VMs and this. Developing msmoneysetup has made my use of MSMoney a lot nicer and easier. msmoneysetup kinda masks the Linux technicalities and just installs it like a normal program. I was always willing to manually install Money in wine in the past because I knew how to make it work. msmoneysetup is sooo much nicer.The genie is out of the bottle, I will always use msmoneysetup now and I’m just glad if others find it useful.

 

Nathan

[N G]

Version msmoneysetup.zip_Linux_13Mar2025 is available

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QerT2ylQzDK4an76atBpcdivF9Hy-nIa?usp=drive_link

- Streamlined OS and dependency checking
- Removed MacOS specific lines; MacOS will have its own version of msmoneysetup/pocketsense
- Added support for Linked Files registry file (MS Office file types, pdfs, images, and zip files)
- Had a problem in pocketsense where deleting the last account with Setup.py would cause a crash. Fixed for python3.

Since Vanguard doesn't seem to be supporting Direct Connect for us anymore I don't have any accounts to connect to. I still use pocketsense for scrubbing nefarious qfx files.

For Gerardus and anyone using Linked Files:

All you have to do is make sure in Linux that you have a good default program for the file types you want to link to. On my machine, jpeg files would open in Firefox by default. I changed it to "Eye of Gnome" and now all supported images open in that. Current file types are doc/docx, xls/xlsx, ppt/pptx, zip, pdf, jpeg/jpg, tiff/tif, bmp, png, and gif. I thought about odt, ods, and odp for Libreoffice. I can add those as well.

See how it works and let me know if there are any issues.

Nathan

[Gerardus Doedee]

Testing Linux_13Mar2025 (a thing of beauty!!!)

Xubuntu 22

Deleted existing msmoneysetup folder

Extracted and prepped new msmoneysetup folder (Linux_13Mar2025)

Ran ./Install.sh
Went thu install process. Did NOT get prompted to install Gecko

./Install.sh finished successfully

Money behaving as expected with reg files being saved / retained on re-install

Winetricks behaving as expected (upon first run, found both Gecko and Mono installed)

Tested Linked File feature. All docs, pdfs and zip files opening with Linux-associated apps (Woohoo!!!)

Fedora 41

Installed LibreOffice (sudo dnf install libreoffice)

Deleted existing msmoneysetup folder

Extracted and prepped new msmoneysetup folder (Linux_13Mar2025)

Ran ./Install.sh
Went thu install process. Did NOT get prompted to install Gecko

./Install.sh finished successfully

Money behaving as expected with reg files being saved / retained on re-install

Winetricks behaving as expected (upon first run, found both Gecko and Mono installed)

Tested Linked File feature. All docs, pdfs and zip files opening with Linux-associated apps (Woohoo!)

Install logs for both Xubuntu 22 and Fedora 41 attached. Note that in Fedora, there seems something not quite right with the prereqs check. I saw some errors flash across the screen when ./Install.sh was running, and the relevant section in wine-install.log (at the top) is blank. It didn't affect the rest of the installation because in my Fedora VM all those prereq are met..

Cheers,

Gerardus

[-Kevin N]

Hi Nathan,

Re: Linux_13Mar2025

Since Gerardus had already performed a clean install from scratch, I thought I'd give the update routine a try.

I extracted the zip to /home and agreed to Replace each of the duplicate files.

I ran Install.sh which seemed to run its course faster than before.

When Money initially starts it does not honor my winetricks DPI setting.  In my case 100 DPI.

I'm guessing that you have Install.sh coded to run at 120 DPI.

However, after restarting Money it does indeed honor my winetricks DPI setting.  So, not a thing.  I don't know why I even mentioned it. :]

I can't speak to the linked file feature.  That's all a little (a lot) foreign to me.

I'm using Linux Mint which comes with LO.  I use LO in the Linux environment.

I've attached wine-install.log

All in all, another great build.

-Kevin N.

[N G]

That's great to hear Gerardus! The more I work on this the more I learn. It's rewarding to make progress like this!

As for the dependency detection I'm changing line 68 to:

'elif [[ -f /etc/fedora-release || -f /etc/redhat-release ]]; then'

That will catch RedHat as well but I don't know how common that will be. Same with CentOS.

Thanks again for testing! If things are good I'm going to focus on the Mac side for a bit.

Nathan

[N G]

Thanks for checking it out Kevin!

Great on install being faster. Shouldn't need to download ie7 or winecalc again so maybe that's it.

I tried to reproduce the dpi issue on my machine, not sure what happened.  I'll keep an eye on it though.

I do have it set to 120 during install but then it **should** load the preferences if present right after that.

Thanks again!

Nathan

[Gerardus Doedee]

Thank you, Nathan.

For the first time, for me, MS Money runs exactly the same in Linux as it does in Windows. Account totals show properly on the banking page, msmoneyquotes works, and opening a linked file starts the associated Linux application, just like, when running MS Money in Windows, opening a linked file starts the associated Windows application.

I've never used PocketSense, so I can't comment on that.

That being said, and I can't speak for other people, but for me, feature replication is complete.

Cheers,

Gerardus

[N G]

Just uploaded msmoneysetup.zjp_Linux_14Mar2025 with the fix for Fedora. Also added a line to MSMoney.sh to kill wineserver in case it hangs from a previous run.

Nathan

[N G]

Gerardus,

Between the three of us (you, Kevin, and I)  we got it dialed in.  👍️

Thanks!

Nathan

[Gerardus Doedee]

And calculator works, too!!! :)

Gerardus

[Ameridan (microsoftmoneyoffline.wordpress.com)]

Is it a tedious process to put the msmoneysetup folder together?  The reason I ask - I use the Sunset version of Home & Business (which will open the regular data file) and the data file will not be opemed properly with your package.   Here are my notes regarding the additional exe files.  https://microsoftmoneyoffline.wordpress.com/sunset-home-business-invoices/

[N G]

I don't think so. For a totally different program, yes, probably. But it's still Money so I feel pretty good about it.

I'll take a look.

Nathan

[N G]

Ameridan,

(Which do you prefer, Ameridan? Dan?)

I installed Home and Business and it seems to have worked. I opened Sample.mny and, this being my first time poking around in H&B, didn't see anything amiss. I went into the Business tab since that's new to me. Everything that I tried seemed to work? I'll open a copy of my mny file and try that out as well.

Do you have some specific things I should do?

Nathan

[Tom Roberts]

What you have done Nathan to optimize Money on other OS's is quite enticing. 

I tried Ubuntu about 20 years ago but not with MSMoney.

Like Ameridan, I use the Business Version of Sunset. 

With Windows 10 going out of support in Oct 2025, I am considering installing Ubuntu or a similar OS so as to keep Money on that computer. I am considering it because of the progress you have made. I remember when you sent an email sometime last year saying you were going to get Money working on Ubuntu or similar, I thought it was a 'pipe dream'. Amazing what hard work can accomplish... 

For my scenario, I would need to choose Ubuntu or some other similar no-cost OS. Any suggestions?  

I would want to keep Windows 10 for as long as possible, so would need to decide on how to access the new OS. I understand it could be selected at boot-up or run from within Windows 10. 

Also, is it correct that you have MSMoneyQuotes and MSMQuote operating on the alternate OS ?

Thanks for any input.   

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[N G]

Ameridan,

I used the Deluxe version of mnyob99.dll for my installation, do you know the H&B version to be different?

Nathan

[N G]

Hi Tom,

Maybe we should start another thread for this conversation. Then anyone following along in a situation similar to yours can participate. I'll reply in the new thread.

Nathan

[N G]

msmoneysetup.zip_Linux_14Mar2025_v2

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QerT2ylQzDK4an76atBpcdivF9Hy-nIa?usp=drive_link

Getting close to a semi-final version of the Linux version of msmoneysetup.

Thanks to my friend Matt, we tested out the Arch Linux dependency checks. v2 contains a check for winbind in Arch which is part of the samba package. Thanks Matt!

Nathan

[Ameridan (microsoftmoneyoffline.wordpress.com)]

(Which do you prefer, Ameridan? Dan?)  Either is fine ;)

I installed Home and Business and it seems to have worked. I opened Sample.mny and, this being my first time poking around in H&B, didn't see anything amiss. I went into the Business tab since that's new to me. Everything that I tried seemed to work? I'll open a copy of my mny file and try that out as well.  Wow, that is great news!

Do you have some specific things I should do?  Preview invoice printing, but I don't know if sample.mny has a sample invoice.

I used the Deluxe version of mnyob99.dll for my installation, do you know the H&B version to be different?  Yes there is a difference, be it very small.

[N G]

Progress. Actually, one step back to get one step forward.

The fix for Account List Subtotals breaks Preview Invoice Printing and Print Invoice.

I'll back out comctl32 and put together a unified script. Hopefully by tomorrow.

Nathan

[N G]

msmoneysetup.zip_Linux_32bit_DLX-HB_15Mar2025

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QerT2ylQzDK4an76atBpcdivF9Hy-nIa?usp=drive_link

This was a bit of a struggle but I think we have parity for both Deluxe and H&B. Had to revert to a pure 32bit prefix for now, I think it has to do with the 32bit comctl32.dll in a 64bit prefix but I don't know how or why. If I rollback the fix for the subtotals in the Account List page then the 64bit prefix works. I'll keep working on it. I'll probably stay with the 32bit prefix for the time being. If the 32bit libraries ever disappear at least I know what to do now. And I have to maintain the 64bit version for MacOS anyway.

So for now a couple of items.

If you put both the Deluxe and H&B installers in moneyinstaller neither will install. I'll fix this soon. Hopefully each user knows what they need. I put the H&B installer in my google drive as well.

Both mnyob99.dll files are in the moneyinstaller folder in msmoneysetup. Install.sh will copy the right one depending on which Money installer is in the moneyinstaller folder.

In Linux you can create a "pdf printer" by installing the cups-pdf package.  This is useful for Money because you can't click Cancel once  you start to print something by mistake. Better to print it to a pdf and delete it.

To install:

Debian/Ubuntu

# sudo apt install printer-driver-cups-pdf

Fedora

# sudo dnf install cups-pdf

# sudo dnf install wine-printer

Let me know if anyone sees anything weird. Changing back to 32bit should be the only difference.

Nathan

[-Kevin N]

Hi Nathan,

Just to confirm.  Those not using Money H&B can (should) stay with the 13Mar2025 or 14Mar2025v2 versions.  Correct?

-Kevin N.

[N G]

Hi Kevin,

I would test the new one. Before Ameridan mentioned his issue with H&B I didn't think there would be any differences between the versions. (silly rabbit) Since 32bit works properly with both Deluxe/H&B I think I'm going to stick with it. I also found a discussion that the wine packages bundled with Fedora should be used as opposed to the ones from winehq, although I can't locate it now to post. Another reason winehq-stable might not be available is if the latest release of a Linux comes out after the release of winehq-stable. Finally, the main reason for the new WoW64 is support for 64bit games that have 32bit installers. It sounds like 32bit support being removed just isn't feasible.

So I'll put the 32bit info back into the README, and I'd like to maintain a unified installer for Linux and Deluxe/H&B. MacOS will still have to be separate because of MacOS versions of commands for pocketsense and that MacOS has no 32bit libraries to support a 32bit prefix. This does mean that support for H&B on MacOS could be an issue for Preview Invoice Printing.

Hope this makes sense. Baring any other gotchas that I'm not aware of, I hope to maintain this form of msmoneysetup.

Nathan

[-Kevin N]

Hi Nathan,

OK, I'll give the Deluxe/H&B version a whirl.  I'll hang on to the other versions too though. Just in case.

-Kevin N.

[N G]

Roger that.

I have all the versions I've uploaded as well so if push comes to shove I can upload an old version.

Typically for me I don't usually get things perfect the first time around, it's the iterative process that gets me there. I'm updating the README as we type so I'll upload a new zip with it if you're happy with the last msmoneysetup.

Nathan

[-Kevin N]

Hi Nathan,  

I think it's prudent to keep the 64-bit versions close at hand in case the 32-bit bits go away and you hit the lottery never to be heard from again. :)

-Kevin N.

[N G]

Dark! But point taken :D

For the record that goes against my future plans lol

[N G]

Actually, all you have to do in the current zip file is go into Install.sh and MSMoney.sh and change WINEARCH from win32 to win64. That's the only change. 

And for H&B people, there's a line to copy comctl32.dll, just comment that out and delete it from winecfg. It breaks the Account List subtotals but Print Invoice Preview works.

That's the difference between 32bit and 64bit currently.

Nathan

[-Kevin N]

Hi Nathan,

OK, I've copied that info to my notes for safekeeping.  Thank you.

I just ran Install.sh for the Dlx/HB version.  All went smoothly & quickly.  

Set up my settings and ran Install.sh again.  All of my settings were remembered.  Calculator works as expected.

[N G]

Cool.

I've edited some parts of README to be clearer in regards to installing wine for Fedora and Debian/Ubuntu. Also put in some notes in Install.sh and MSMoney.sh about changing WINEARCH.

I think I'll make a reg file that will skip comctl32 if 1. H&B is being installed and 2. WINEARCH is win64.  

Hopefully this is a temporary condition. With time and improvements to wine I hope that some of my workarounds become unnecessary.

I'm still leaving my old notes in the Notes folder because they describe how I used to build the msmoney prefix. If you don't think they are necessary I can remove them?

Nathan

[N G]

Here's the latest with the updated README and comments in Install.sh and MSMoney.sh. Otherwise identical to yesterday's.

msmoneysetup.zip_Linux_32bit_DLX-HB_17Mar2025

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QerT2ylQzDK4an76atBpcdivF9Hy-nIa?usp=drive_link

If someone with H&B wants to check it out that would be cool.

Nathan

[Gerardus Doedee]

@ Nathan:

If I read all of this correct, this is going to affect my testing with Fedora 41 on the wine stable channel, no? It has no 32bit.... If this is correct, I'm not sure what you want me to do:  Start testing Fedora 41 with wine-staging? Wine staging DOES have 32bit...

Let me know.

Cheers,

Gerardus

[-Kevin N]

Hi Nathan,

In the INSTALL OTHER TOOLS section of the README, python3 is mentioned as needed for pocketsense but it's not listed as one of the components in the two run commands.

"Step 5. Don't worry about changing anything when the Money Installation program runs, just click through normally."

Maybe it's just me, but every time I read the above sentence, I misconstrue it as 'go ahead and change anything and don't worry about it'.

It probably could be worded differently or maybe just taken out altogether.  (Keep the Note: part though).

In the spirit of consistency, in the 'note' section of Step 7, you advise to close Money from the 'Home or Account List page'.  Further down in the MINOR COSMETIC GLITCHES WITH MONEY IN WINE section, the two options are listed as 'Home or Banking'.  I think that the 'note' in Step 7 should also say 'Home or Banking'.  

I try to read through the README as a new user would who is not familiar with any of the trappings associated with the scripts.

-Kevin N.

[N G]

Hi Gerardus,

Yeah let’s press with wine-staging. Wine-stable is stuck at version 10.0 and won’t change until next year. Wine-staging is actively being worked on, I think we’re at version 10.3. 

Also, if you look at the wine-install.log on Fedora you’ll see many messages that WoW64 mode is experimental, from wine itself and winetricks. I’m hoping as development continues it will get better but 32-bit prefixes provide a more consistent environment for supporting both Money Deluxe and H&B in Linux.

Not related to Linux but on MacOS Money Deluxe works fine with wine-stable but H&B does not; the Print Invoice Preview problem. I’m testing wine-staging now. Hopefully I can make some progress.The good thing is I’ve automated installing Wine and all the dependencies, and MacOS will have an Uninstall.sh script as well. 

Thanks for continuing to test Fedora!

Nathan

[N G]

Hi Kevin,

In the INSTALL OTHER TOOLS section of the README, python3 is mentioned as needed for pocketsense but it's not listed as one of the components in the two run commands.

I think python3 is the default for Linux now so that’s why I only mention it for pocketsense, since people crossing over to Linux will probably have pocketsense written for python2.7.  

"Step 5. Don't worry about changing anything when the Money Installation program runs, just click through normally."

Maybe it's just me, but every time I read the above sentence, I misconstrue it as 'go ahead and change anything and don't worry about it'.

It probably could be worded differently or maybe just taken out altogether.  (Keep the Note: part though).

Maybe instead of “click through normally” I can say something like “accept the defaults”?

In the spirit of consistency, in the 'note' section of Step 7, you advise to close Money from the 'Home or Account List page'.  Further down in the MINOR COSMETIC GLITCHES WITH MONEY IN WINE section, the two options are listed as 'Home or Banking'.  I think that the 'note' in Step 7 should also say 'Home or Banking'.  

Done. Thanks for this. 

I try to read through the README as a new user would who is not familiar with any of the trappings associated with the scripts.

-Kevin N

Thanks Kevin, much appreciated. 

Nathan 

[Gerardus Doedee]

@Nathan: Some hickups withFedora 41 running wine10-staging:

Fedora 41 with wine10-staging (built via Method 1 [AppStream]: wine --version reveals 10.1. 32bit available and installed. Running dnfdragora to run updates does currently NOT update wine10-staging to 10.3

Fedora 41 with wine10-staging (built via Method 2 [WineHQ]: wine --version reveals 10.3. However, 32bit is not available

So right now, to test 32bit on Fedora, I have no other option than to use Fedora 41 with wine10-staging (built via Method 1 [AppStream] even though it is NOT at version 10.3. Is this what you would like me to do?

Cheers,

Gerardus

[N G]

Hi Gerardus,

Yeah that's fine. At least for now 32-bit is easier to manage for the two versions of Money. Otherwise I might have to have separate versions of msmoneysetup for Deluxe vs H&B, at least until I can figure some things out.

Nathan

[N G]

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QerT2ylQzDK4an76atBpcdivF9Hy-nIa?usp=drive_link

msmoneysetup.zip_Linux_64bit_20Mar2025

Finally! Back due to popular demand, 64bit prefixes!

Seriously this was kinda tough to figure out but for you guys taking notes:

1. Wine 10 introduced a builtin dll for iertutil.
https://forum.winehq.org/viewtopic.php?p=146318

Now we know 'why' we needed to install iertutil when wine 10 came out and the effect it had on Money; Money broke! :)

This lead to breakthrough number 2.

2. While I was messing with this in a 32bit prefix I found that Money Deluxe always worked properly (the same as what I'm used to) but H&B would rarely Print Invoice Preview without crashing. Turns out, the installer needs iertutil as well even though it didn't complain. With Home and Biz I had a weird popup a couple of times for some Microsoft printing subsystem installer. And whenever I had that popup (and the printing subsystem installed correctly, the Print Invoice Preview always worked. I realized previously I would normally install ie7 with winetricks early in the process before Money was installed, but my manual way of installing ie7 for 64bit was happening after Money was installed.

3. Ultimately I had to relearn for myself to manually install ie7 "before" running the Money installer, just like when I was running a 32bit prefix with winetricks msxml3, msxml4, tahoma, and ie7. From the link in Item #1 it says to set iertutil to 'native', not native,builtin which allows the builtin dll as a fallback. Builtin means use the dll provided by wine, native means use the one from Windows, whether that's via winetricks or manually copied like I'm doing for ie7. By setting it to native only, it means ignore the one from wine.

Which leads to ...

4. Money Deluxe and H&B are working in MacOS! For MacOS the Install.sh is different because I script the entire installation. I'll post more details in the MacOS post when I create it. Pocketsense has been modified slightly for MacOS commands so the folder in msmoneysetup is called ofxpy_pocketsense-python3-macos. I still need to work on the wrapper so MacOS associates ofx/qfx files with Money. Currently what works is put your statements in import as usual, run Getdata.py, and then from Money, File -> Import.

For Kevin and Gerardus let me know if you find anything that slipped through the cracks. I have to imagine there will be something after this little journey. I updated the remarks in Install.sh, MSMoney.sh, and the README as well.

Nathan

[Gerardus Doedee]

Good sleuthing!!!

If it's all the same to you, in my testing, my main focus will be on the 64bit versions (that's where things seem to be leading for the future). I will test 32bit where time allows. Besides all this Linux testing I have to go to work, too, you know)

Cheers,

Gerardus

[Gerardus Doedee]

First test results with Fedora 41 VM

Fedora 41 with wine10 stable, built via Method 2 [WineHQ],  w /LibreOffice and CUPS/PDF installed

Installer Package: Linux_64bit_20Mar2005

Money version installed: USMoneyDlxSunset

Deleted existing msmoneysetup folder

Extracted new msmoneysetup and prepped

Ran ./Install.sh

Install finished successful

Ran MSMoney from desktop shortcut

MSMoneyQuotes ran successfully in console window before start of MS  Money itself

Made config chg in MSMoney (Placed checkmark in "show transaction forms" in acct register)

Calculator, Linked Files and Print functions operated as expected

Reinstall

All prefs are maintained

Overall impression: Everything working as expected. Good work

Install log and quotes.error log attached

In install log, please note large # of entries when probing for presence of prereqs (looks like we got a list of EVERYTHING installed in Fedora VM)

In quotes.error log, please note ntlm_auth error message even though samba-winbind is install and MSMoneyQuotes is working properly

Cheers,

Gerardus

[Gerardus Doedee]

First test results with Xubuntu 22 VM

Xubuntu 22 with  wine10 stable, w /LibreOffice and CUPS/PDF installed

Installer Package: Linux_64bit_20Mar2005

Money version installed: USMoneyDlxSunset

Deleted existing msmoneysetup folder

Extracted new msmoneysetup and prepped

Ran ./Install.sh

Install finished successful

Ran MSMoney from desktop shortcut

MSMoneyQuotes ran successfully in console window before start of MS  Money itself

Made config chg in MSMoney (Placed checkmark in "show transaction forms" in acct register)

Calculator, Linked Files and Print functions operated as expected

Reinstall

All prefs are maintained

Overall impression: Everything working as expected. Good work

Install log and quotes.error log attached

In quotes.error log, no errors about ntlm_auth,  MSMoneyQuotes is working properly

On a side note, now that MSMoneyQuotes is running in a console window, I can password-protect my money file again (like I did before I started all this Linux testing). With MSMoneyQuotes running in a console, I get properly prompted for the money file password. After supplying the PW, MSMoneyQuotes continues on its merry way, finishes, and after that, MSMoney starts....

Cool....

On another side note, I'm not sure if I can test H&B. Never used it, don't have a data file for it. Does H&B have its own sample.mny that I can use?

Let me know

Gerardus

[-Kevin N]

Hi Nathan,

Re: Linux_64bit_20Mar2025

I can't really add to what Gerardus has already tested and posted.

I ran Install.sh as an update to the previous build.  Everything works as expected.

I also can't speak to H&B.

-Kevin N.

[N G]

Gents,

Yeah now that I understand how to properly set up a 64bit prefix that's what we're going with. I didn't know how long it would take to figure out the 64bit stuff, if at all, so that's why I wanted to go back to 32bit.

"Besides all this Linux testing I have to go to work, too, you know)"

😅️ Gotcha

I'll look at the Fedora rpm command. I think I broke that when troubleshooting the Arch Linux command.

As for H&B, I don't recommend using your own deluxe mny file with it. H&B data will be saved into it and become inaccessible in Deluxe (you'll get a popup about it).

But there is a Sample.mny you can use. The main things I've been checking for, for both versions of Money are:

Click Reports, Click Monthly Reports, make sure the list displays properly.

Click Banking, make sure the subtotals align properly.

Click File, Open, and make sure it doesn't crash when the selection box loads.

H&B - Click Business, click Print Invoice Preview, make sure it displays the preview without crashing.

Further, in testing I reinstall money, alternating between Deluxe and H&B, although no one should be doing that normally. I had problems with this before figuring out the iertutil fix.

Since you guys have tested the new 64bit Linux msmoneysetup without any new issues (except for Fedora logging) I'm going to remove the previous zip files, leaving just the latest Linux and MacOS msmoneysetups. Like I said, I have all the previous releases so I can upload any of them if requested.

Thanks for the help guys, we've come a long way.
Nathan

[N G]

msmoneysetup.zip_Linux_64bit_21Mar2025 - Hopefully fixed Fedora logging, nothing else has changed.

Nathan

[Gerardus Doedee]

Testing Linux_64bit_21Mar2005 on Fedora 41 VM

Fedora 41 with wine10 stable, built via Method 2 [WineHQ],  w /LibreOffice and CUPS/PDF installed

Installer Package: Linux_64bit_21Mar2005

Money version installed: USMoneyDlxSunset

Extracted new msmoneysetup over top of existing msmoneysetup (overwrite existing files) AKA "Upgrade"

Ran ./Install.sh

Install finished successful

(Found the same thing as Kevin: When Money initially starts it does not honor the winetricks DPI setting.  In my case 96 DPI in the VM.

Install.sh coded to run at 120 DPI?

However, after restarting Money it does indeed honor winetricks DPI setting.)

Ran MSMoney from desktop shortcut

MSMoneyQuotes ran successfully in console window before start of MS  Money itself

Changes from prior installation retained (however, see note above)

Calculator, Linked Files and Print functions operated as expected

Reinstall

All prefs are maintained

Install log attached

In install log, proper entries now displayed (instead of everything installed in the VM)

Cheers,

Gerardus

[N G]

Roger that Gerardus, the reg file mystery is my project for today. I’ve also noticed that sound in Money doesn’t work when importing the moneyprefs.reg file. Thanks for the reminder. I have a couple of ideas to investigate, hopefully I’ll figure it out today.

Yesterday I figured out that wine in Macos works just like in Linux if I use the default prefix (,wine) and not msmoneyprefix. Not sure why but at this point Money in MacOS is now functionally the same as in Linux. I just need to upload the change. 

Thanks!

Nathan

[N G]

msmoneysetup.zip_Linux_64bit_22Mar2025

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QerT2ylQzDK4an76atBpcdivF9Hy-nIa?usp=drive_link

DPI settings - I load the 120 dpi setting directly early in Install.sh now without using a registry file, never figured out why overwriting previous reg entries don't take effect during the installation process.

But I discovered that when Money runs the first time we MUST select our mny file manually or create a new one for the installation to fully complete. If I import money's reg settings before that about 8000 entries aren't inserted into the registry, many of them related to all the wav files for sounds.

After that though, Install.sh will import mnyprefs.reg and all your settings should be loaded. Let me know if there's any more weirdness with this.

The README has been updated as well, attached below.

Nathan

[Gerardus Doedee]

Testing Linux_64bit_22Mar2025 with USMoneyDlxSunset on XUbuntu 22 and Fedora 41 VMs (both wine10 stable):  -- Sounds are working again. No other deficiencies to report

I'm not sure where along the way the sounds got broken. I know for a fact that they were working for me in Linux_13Mar2025 (a 64bit install of USMoneyDlxSunset on XUbuntu 22)

Will take a look at the readme in the next day or so and will get back with any comments...

Cheers,

Gerardus

[N G]

Thanks Gerardus,

Yeah it's a mystery for me too. My guess is that once I started using mnyprefs to manually copy Money's registry settings instead of Money creating them short-circuits something.

I had to execute the commands in Install.sh one at at time and then look to see what happens. Installing Money properly ends up with over 180,000 lines in the registry 😮️ and using moneyprefs was about 8,000 less. I couldn't believe it. But for sure, install Money but don't run it, then look in the registry and it's key is mostly empty. It has to run once to properly create everything before I copy stuff back.

Nathan

[Gerardus Doedee]

Sound to me that opening a money file and closing it from the home page (all of this during the install) is actually a prereq for the install to finish properly, no? If so, I'm not sure if the current readme properly reflects this. You hint at it, but it's not listed as a prereq..

For any of my installations, before I even start, I make sure there is a money file located at ~/Documents so that Money can easily find it and open it.

Gerardus

[-Kevin N]

Hi Nathan,

Re: Linux_64bit_22Mar2025

Confirmed that the sounds are working although, I do turn them off in settings after the initial installation. :|

I noticed that there is no longer a prompt that 'Money needs to download additional files...' <paraphrasing> during the installation routine.

Re: DPI.  I would just reiterate that since DPI resolves itself on the subsequent startup after the initial installation, that it really doesn't qualify as an issue.

I'm thinking that that this build is pretty much as close as you could get to an RC build.

-Kevin N.

[Gerardus Doedee]

From Kevin:

"I'm thinking that that this build is pretty much as close as you could get to an RC build."

I agree

Gerardus

[N G]

Thanks Gerardus, I'll look at the README and wait for your input as well to clarify this.

If you look at Install.sh there are many commands, but if I change the order of the right one the installation will crash and burn lol. comctl32.dll is one for sure. Now that I understand the role of opening a mny file directly during install, and loading mnyprefs afterwards, we shouldn't have that problem anymore. From now on, when running Install.sh, the user will have to select their file; if mnyprefs exists it will be loaded after that.

Thanks!

Nathan

[N G]

Hi Kevin, Gerardus,

I changed how the money installer runs. It has a quiet flag ( /Q ) so that little prompt about additional files won't happen anymore.

I figured a lot of people probably just turn the sounds off, I only noticed they were missing when doing install tests without the preferences registry files. Still, feature complete has always been my goal.

I agree with you guys though, this is pretty much there! I like using msmoneysetup now that I have it. When new versions of wine are released it's important for me to test creating the prefix from scratch. It's so much better than the way I used to run it, with the added benefit that it runs on my Mac in exactly the same manner! I'm so glad we all went this route!

I just did a wine upgrade from wine-stable to wine-staging and I experienced the "wine upgrade" scenario I mention in the README where an Internet Explorer window pops up asking about being the default browser. Hopefully this will only ever happen once, we'll see when wine-staging 10.4 comes out. There may be something I can do about it.

I appreciate all the help along the way guys! I'm sure daily updates can get exhausting lol

Nathan

[N G]

One more tweak.

msmoneysetup.zip_Linux_64bit_23Mar2025

When I run wineboot -u (updates the prefix) ie7 browser will run every time. So c:\windows\syswow64\iexplorer.exe is renamed to iexplore.exe.bak (for now) and now the popup doesn't happen.

Money doesn't actually need this iexplore.exe to run, it just needs the dlls and other parts. This change is in the Mac version as well.

Nathan

[Gerardus Doedee]

I'm sure daily updates can get exhausting lol"

In my testing VMs, to keep things straight and my sanity intact I've resorted to putting a txt file on the desktop listing which flavor of Money is installed (DLX or HB) , whether the msmoneyprefix is 32bit or 64bit and which version of your installer package was used for installation. I update this txt file every time a new update comes along :)

Gerardus

[N G]

Hi everyone,

Some feedback I've received is that the README should be just the quick and easy steps, and the current README should be something like Notes or Manual.

So README should be something like:

1. Download the msmoneysetupzip. Right-click, extract. Move msmoneysetup to home folder.
2. Download the Dlx or H&B exe file, put it into msmoneysetup/moneyinstaller
3. If you have msmoneyquotes / csv file, put them into msmoneyquotes.
4. Linux: from the terminal, run ./Install.sh - MacOS: double-click Install.command
5. ....

In other words, just the essential steps from the README.

My desire for transparency is why the README is the way it is. But for a user that isn't versed in terminal use or doesn't really care how any of it works, this is simpler. Any thoughts?

Nathan

[Gerardus Doedee]

Do both: Summary at the top, more detailed explanation further down for those who are interested.

Make sure to include a step in the summary that says:

Ensure all prerequisites are met (wine, winbind, cabextract, zenity, xdgutils, wget) [only have to be installed once]

[Personally I would also add the modification to the host file (0.0.0.0 g.msn.com) as well as cups/pdf to the prereqs]

After all of this, you can run and rerun the installation of MSMoney as many times as you want.

Just a thought...

Gerardus

[-Kevin N]

Hi Nathan,

A 'Quick Start' guide is a great idea.  

One of the things I find as a 'weaned-on-Windows' person new to Linux is that some programs are just too Linux-y, to learn how to use if you know what I mean.

Simple, concise, step-by-step instruction should help to entice those less tech savvy into giving it a try. 

As Gerardus suggests, keep the longer version as well for those interested.

-Kevin N.

[Gerardus Doedee]

My experience is similar to Kevin's. I'm forever looking for the exact commands required for whatever it is I want to accomplish in Linux. When I find the info, I compile a list of commands for my own use. Seems to work for me.

For what it's worth, I'd be happy to try and write something up that lists the console commands for Ubuntu (in order), for installing wine, winbind, cabextract, zenity xdgutils, wget, cups/pfd,  editing /etc/hosts

Then describe how to extract msmoney and prep it

Then move back to console to do

cd ~/msmoneysetup

./Install.sh

etc, etc.

Fedora will take longer simply because I'm less experienced with it than Ubuntu

Gerardus

[N G]

I've been thinking about the work I did on the Mac version and how almost the entire install is scripted. I can probably put the sudo commands for Debian/Ubuntu and Redhat/Fedora and actually install what's missing instead of just logging it. On top of that, rather than have the user get the Money installer (Deluxe vs H&B) maybe I can just ask the user in the script and automatically download the right one directly to moneyinstaller.

So the ideal would be that the user only downloads/extracts msmoneysetup and the script does everything else. Then the Quick Start Guide would essentially be:

1. Download msmoneysetup.zip for Linux. (Link)

2. Right-click and extract msmoneysetup.zip.

3. Copy the msmoneysetup folder to your home folder.

4. Open a terminal, and run ./Install.sh

5. When the MS Money install program runs, click Accept, click Finish.

6. When Money runs, Click File in the upper left hand corner, click Open, navigate to your mny file.

7. Close Money.

8. Use MSMoney.sh on your desktop to run it.

And then a different section for MSMoneyquotes, and a different section for pocketsense.

This is probably doable. It would make the article on Ameridan's website shorter/cleaner as well. Less scary. Fewer complicated steps.

What do you guys think?

Nathan

[-Kevin N]

Hi Nathan,

Careful.  You're getting dangerously close to being Windows-y. :)

I'm using Mint Cinnamon.  TBH, I don't remember needing to install any of the extra apps. e.g winbind, cabextract, xdg-utils etc.  I think it was winetricks that asked to install Mono but that's about it.  I suppose though that when I manually installed apps e.g. python3 that other dependencies were added.

Is it usual for Linux installation routines to use sudo commands?  I would think it is necessary for some.  If so, then I don't see any problem with yours doing so.

An 8-step installation is much less 'scary' than the extended README.

-Kevin N.

[-Kevin N]

Hi Nathan, Gerardus,

I wanted to point out a small weirdness and maybe get confirmation...

If you select an item from the 'Bills Summary' page and click on 'Enter in Register'.  In the resulting form, the 'Date' will sometimes be truncated (if it has a 2-digit day)  e.g. 4/20/2025.  In the case of 4/20/2025, the Month is truncated e.g. /27/2025.  In the case of 4/27/2025, the last digit of the year is truncated. e.g. 4/27/202.

I did try tinkering with DPI settings but it didn't seem to make any difference.

Not a game-changer by any stretch.  I don't expect anyone to resolve this.  Just pointing it out.

-Kevin N.

[N G]

Hi Kevin.

I've had a revelation in testing Money in MacOS that we're not all "computer people", and this Linux stuff doesn't come easily. If I can help with that with automation then I want to.

Sudo is needed when doing anything that requires admin privileges, such as installing packages or editing certain files. The version of Debian I'm running now uses sudo but the previous version I ran did not. That's why I stayed away from scripting package installation before. But I think anyone who needs this script is probably using a version of Linux with sudo, and anyone who doesn't should know what to do or can ask for help.

In Windows we have the concept of an administrator account, for Linux that's called "root." Using root can be more dangerous because it has absolute power on a system, and a hacker or malicious code running as the root user is "really bad." Sudo just elevates your regular user account temporarily to have some of that power. If your regular user account becomes compromised it still only has regular user access. Whenever you run your package manager to install programs you have to type in your password; that's sudo.

With all of that said, I think there are some Money users who might like to try Linux or Mac to run Money. MacOS got me thinking about just how much I can script, and now I'm bringing the Linux installer to the same capability as the MacOS installer.

The hard part last night and this morning was automatically downloading USMoneyDlxSunset.exe of H&B from google drive. I have it worked out now so Install.sh will ask you what version of Money you want to run, then it will go get it. If it's already there it will just use it. Because Google has the popup about virus scan and everything it wasn't as easy as I would have hoped. Even the media share that Ameridan links to works for a short time but then the link expires. There's an app I'm installing called "gdown" that takes the file ID of the google drive file and then does all the complicated stuff so I can keep Install.sh clean. I need to test in Fedora but then it will be ready.

Hopefully it will be a much shorter Quick Start Guide, something like:

1. Download msmoneysetup.zip.

2. Extract it.

3. Move it to your home folder.

4. Open a terminal.

5. Type ./Install.sh

The page on Ameridan's website will be cleaner and less scary too.

Nathan

[N G]

Thanks Kevin,

I can confirm here too. Maybe it's related to fixing the Subtotals column in Account List? I'll check when I get some time just to see but I probably won't change anything. I'll add it to the current README though.

Nathan

[Ameridan (microsoftmoneyoffline.wordpress.com)]

Nathan, let me know if  can help hosting the Money install files (assuming they aren't too large for my free Mediafire account).  I wish I could build the patched dll into the files too.

[N G]

All good! Thanks a lot for the offer!

I have the solution in place and working in Debian. I'll test it in Fedora and see what Gerardus finds. Then I'll get the code over to the MacOS installer, maybe by the end of this week.

Nathan

[Gerardus Doedee]

Kevin, Nathan:

"If you select an item from the 'Bills Summary' page and click on 'Enter in Register'.  In the resulting form, the 'Date' will sometimes be truncated (if it has a 2-digit day)  e.g. 4/20/2025.  In the case of 4/20/2025, the Month is truncated e.g. /27/2025.  In the case of 4/27/2025, the last digit of the year is truncated. e.g. 4/27/202.

I did try tinkering with DPI settings but it didn't seem to make any difference.

Not a game-changer by any stretch.  I don't expect anyone to resolve this.  Just pointing it out."

Above behavior confirmed in Xubuntu 22 and Fedora 41. Agree with Kevin. Not a biggie

Gerardus

[N G]

msmoneysetup_Linux_64bit_FullInstall_26Mar2025.zip

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QerT2ylQzDK4an76atBpcdivF9Hy-nIa?usp=drive_link

Changed the naming convention of the zip file. Just right-click and extract now.

This is the Linux version of msmoneysetup that will install Wine and all the other prereq's, It will ask what version of Money you run (1. for Deluxe, 2. for H&B) and it will download it and put it in the right place. If the money installer is already there it will use it. I tested in Fedora and I didn't see anything amiss. Just remembered I wanted to add the pdf printer, I'll get that in the next one.

In testing whether to install wine from the repo or from winehq on Debian/Ubuntu I went back to Wine 9.0 which doesn't truncate the last digit in Bills... still researching that one.

See what you guys think.

Nathan

[Gerardus Doedee]

Thanks. This will take a little bit of time. My "base" VMs for Xubuntu and Fedora all have wine, winbind, cabextract, zenity, xdgutils, wget already installed. Gonna create new base VM's without these prereqs already installed (or most of them). This will allow a true(er) test of this latest installer. Will report back.

Gerardus

[N G]

The Bills item:

Wine 9 it's good, Wine 10.0 through 10.4 it's truncated, even with Wine's comctl32.dll. Let's keep an eye on this one.

Nathan

On Wednesday, March 26, 2025 at 9:08:42 PM UTC+9 gerardu...@gmail.com wrote:

[Bill Hackney]

Hi Nathan

I, like other users of this Google Group, have been watching from the sidelines at all of the great work that you have been doing, with input from Kevin and Gerardus.

I'm a UK user using the UK 2005 version of Money, currently on a Windows machine, but with a 2017 Macbook Air running Monterey sitting on the sidelines and ready for me to have a go at installing Money on.

Given that you are now allowing users to select either Deluxe or H&B, would you also contemplate adding the other flavours of Money (UK 2005,  French 2005, etc) if you can get the relevant .exe files to put on Google Drive?

Kind regards

Bill

[N G]

Scratch my last about Wine 9, it has the truncated date as well, but not always.

Nathan

[N G]

Hi Bill,

Sure!  Is Money 2005 UK - QFE the version you run?

I still need to get the code that does the choosing and downloading into the MacOS version of msmoneysetup so maybe after that I'll try the UK version?

I did get a Japanese version running some time ago, I remember it wasn't happy running on a US region computer with Wine. I'm guessing the UK version will probably complain similarly but we should be able to get around that.

I'll start a new conversation when I have something for you to try.

Nathan

[-Kevin N]

Hi Nathan, Gerardus,

Thank you for the confirmation.

@Nathan, Personally, I may be a little apprehensive about installing Wine 9 when I already have Wine 10 installed.  If you recall, I have several different prefixes that already work well with Wine 10.

Do you know if installing Wine 9 using the script would affect the existing Wine 10 installation?

I suppose it's all moot now that Wine 9 still displays the truncated date.  

I should add that although the date appears truncated in the form, it doesn't actually affect the date that is applied to the form.

-Kevin N.

[Gerardus Doedee]

Re testing of Linux_64bit_FullInstall_26Mar2025

OS: Fedora 41 Fresh Install, updated via dnfdragora, LibreOffice manually installed  (but nothing else)

Installer package: Linux_64bit_FullInstall_26Mar2025

Money version installed. Dlx

msmoneysetup extracted to home directory

cd ~/msmoneysetup

./Install.sh

Supplied sudo password when asked

y to confirm various downloads / installs

1 to install Dlx

Install finished successfully

Ran money from desktop shortcut

Runs as expected, including sounds and linked files

It's a thing of absolute beauty. It checks prerequisites and installs what's needed, including wine. On my VM, the whole process took about 10 mins.

Have not done re-install yet. Have not tested Xubuntu yet. (I actually have some work - work to do right now)

wine-install.log attached

Cheers,

Gerardus

[Bill Hackney]

Hi Nathan

Great news.

I'm using version 14.0.120.1105 aka Money 2005 Deluxe, but the UK version.  The installation .exe is called Money2005-UK-QFE2.exe

Bill

[N G]

Hi Kevin,

I understand about you having multiple prefixes. While I can't "guarantee" they will work perfectly with wine 9 I think they probably will. That's been my experience since I started when wine 5 was out, and every year when I upgraded. I understand if you don't want to rock the boat (so to speak) and you want to stay where you're at. No worries.

A couple of things:

- If there are any issues, no matter what I will definitely help you.

- You can keep the last working msmoneysetup and continue to use that. This is good for someone who is more comfortable in Linux and knows how to install packages.

- If you look at the winehq Debian/Ubuntu page there is some conditional items that my script would have to work through to determine exactly what version of Ubuntu or Debian the user is running and set up the apt sources. Improper sources could break someone's computer; don't want that. While not impossible it will take some doing for me, and I'd like to get the complete installer working as well as possible. 

- The other thought I have been working through is, is wine 10 from winehq worth the squeeze? If the version of wine that comes with Linux is good enough, why not use that? That's my thinking, at least for now.

- I'm trying to bridge the gap for those who aren't comfortable with Linux (yet) and maybe seeing MS Money running would encourage them to try. The one-command solution is my goal. My friend who helped me test MacOS helped me understand that even looking at the folder structure for someone new is complicated. "You want me to download what separately and put it where?" LOL

- On a slightly less-related note, MSMoney.my has a command to kill Money if it hangs. This is useful for people who double-click the shortcut on the desktop. Double-clicking the shortcut again will kill the hung process before running it again. The more bullet-proof all of this is the better.

Hopefully this helps.

Nathan

[N G]

Awesome! That's what I'm looking to achieve. Maybe I'll see about checking for wine first, in case people want to run the winehq version and install it themselves, but the rest of it will work like this.

Thanks!

Nathan

[N G]

Thanks Bill, I'll let you when I have something.

Nathan

[Gerardus Doedee]

Re testing of Linux_64bit_FullInstall_26Mar2025

OS: XUbuntu 22 Fresh Install, updated via Software Updater  (but nothing else)

Installer package: Linux_64bit_FullInstall_26Mar2025

Money version installed. Dlx

msmoneysetup extracted to home directory

cd ~/msmoneysetup

./Install.sh

Supplied sudo password when asked

y to confirm various downloads / installs

1 to install Dlx

Fail: Looked at the install log: "Unable to locate package gdown" Because of this, the Money installer.exe is never downloaded. However, the install script continues, but I never get my prompt back in the console window. Have to break out of the console session.

Shortcut to MSMoney.sh gets put on the desktop but obviously MS Money does not run

You said Ubuntu is somewhat behind on their packages. No kidding: wine --version reveals wine-6.0.3 (Ubuntu 6.0.3~repack-1)

wine-install.log attached

Cheers,

Gerardus