Quickbooks Requires That You Reboot Your Computer To Complete The Installation Loop

[Kena Sugrue]

Manyusers see a message stating that QuickBooks requires a system reboot to complete its installation. This typically happens when a new QuickBooks update has been installed. However, even after rebooting, the update doesn't always complete, and the reboot notification continues to loop incessantly.

If you choose 'No' when the reboot prompt appears and then manually restart, your computer system states that the installation was interrupted unexpectedly. You must redo the process from the beginning.

I'm trying to assist a user in updating their QuickBooks Desktop 2020 install, but continually receive the "Reboot Required" message. When a QuickBook update becomes available, updates are done by our IT team, not the users themselves. So, I login as the user, get the update files, then run QuickBooks Desktop 2020 as administrator to complete the update. This time, however, I'm receiving the message that an update is available whenever I'm logging in as the user, and then I'm receiving the message "reboot required" when running the application as an admin. Even after rebooting, the reboot message still appears when running as admin, and the "update available" message appears when running as the user. I've tried the following:

I'm not really sure where to go from here, but it appears to be an unbreakable loop. I'm also now unable to open QuickBooks as admin, as it just pops up with a "restart required" message, then closes. Although running as user is still possible, updating as user is not. I'd like to refrain from doing a clean install as long as possible. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

To start, let's ensure that you have created a backup copy of your company file. Then, you can restart your computer so there will be no programs that may affect or be affected during the repair. Once ready, you can follow these steps on how to repair QuickBooks:

After the process, you can update your QuickBooks to the latest release again to make sure you have the most recent fixes and security updates. However, if you're prompted with an error code after the repair, you can use this article to resolve the error you're getting: Fix QuickBooks Desktop install errors.

I ran the repair from the "Add/Remove" menu, then started QuickBooks as the user. I was able to run the "Get Updates" function as the user, and then opened as administrator. I saw the "updating QuickBooks" window open and seem to progress through the update. Afterwards, I rebooted and ran QuickBooks as the user again, and was met with the same "Updates are available. Please contact your system administrator to install" message. So, I closed the user session and ran as admin, got the same message "reboot is required", and then QuickBooks closed automatically. Seems that the loop isn't broken yet, and I did not receive any of the errors outlined in the "Fix QuickBooks Desktop install errors" KB. Any other ideas? During my troubleshooting, I ran across a lot of QuickBooks videos that show an "Install Now" button when the software is run as administrator, but I can't seem to get that button to surface.

Open Task Manager, halt ALL running QB applications including database manager(s), Perform a cold reboot (COmpletely shut down, not just restart) Then try the repair tool again. I believe this is how I had to fix this issue.

Looks like the issue persists even after doing all the steps we've suggested. Let me direct you to our Phone Support Team who can do a remote session with you so they can investigate the root cause of the issue.

The other suggestions didn't work for me, the repair was not an option, only uninstall. I tried the QuickBooksToolHub, it ran a bunch of updates and still didn't fix it. Then I looked at the C:\Program Files (x86)\Intuit\QuickBooks 2021 and found the QBUpdateUtility, ran it and it fixed the problem by updating QB to the latest version.

I appreciate you sharing information about the outcome of the steps you've performed. Since you still experience the same thing, I recommend running your QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) program in administrator mode. Here's how:

Once opened, update your QBDT to the latest release so the system will allow the recent component of the program. If the same thing happens, the security set up on your firewall's settings might be set to high and set restriction that cause the issue. To fix this, let's configure the firewall set up.

Three years later this still exists on QB 2022. Non admin users of a company cannot update their QB because of this loop. Even after IT team runs the program as admin to fix the issue. How do they not know how to fix this?

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We are currently running Quickbooks Desktop 2021 Pro, and were looking to install 2022 Pro to stay on top of our Payroll updates; however, while most of our computers were able to install 2022 Pro without issue, we are having a strange problem with one of them. This computer is a client running Windows 10 Pro.

I've tried clicking "No" on the prompt to reboot and restarting manually, but it claims that the install was interrupted and I end up having to start again from scratch. Every install has been set to "Custom" and selecting the option that the company file is not hosted on the computer, and deselecting the 'service shortcuts' option. Oddly I've noticed it doesn't detect the current Quickbooks 2021 installation and try to replace it, but I'm not sure if that's intentional or not.

I wanted to clarify if you've tried installing on this computer in selective startup mode? If not, let's give that a try. Selective startup is there when you're having issues installing or uninstalling a program. I've covered some steps to do this below.

To make sure no other application hinders you from completing your task, switch to Selective startup mode. If you're uncomfortable doing the steps, consult your computer's manufacturer, Windows expert or professional IT.

Thank you for the prompt response, I am fortunately the IT tech of the company so I will try your suggestions and get back to you. I'm also going to see if the system is behind on Windows updates, as I found several suggestions online claiming that resolve issues like this.

So no luck, and all the Windows updates are installed, however I was able to get a bit more information for you. It seems to be after it is looking for other installed applications, then changes to installing the software is when it appears to prompt for the reboot. I've gotten what appears to be a couple different errors.

The second, after rebooting from the above error, was just a generic error that read along the lines of "Something went wrong, please run setup.exe to install Quickbooks". Subsequent reboots result in this error, unless I hit 'No' to the reboot prompt, reboot, and start the installation from scratch - in which case I get the first error.

Let's continue our troubleshooting steps to get rid of the error so you can install QuickBooks successfully. Error 1723 is related or can be caused by the damaged installer package on the Windows permission. I'll show you how to edit its security permissions.

Once done, proceed with the steps in this article to reinstall QuickBooks Desktop. This article explains better what is the message all about: Receiving the Error 1723 while installing or uninstalling QuickBooks Desktop.

INSTALLMESSAGE_INFO Message: CustomAction VerifyIfBetaVersionIsInstalled returned actual error code 1157 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)

INSTALLMESSAGE_ERROR Message: Error 1723.There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A DLL required for this install to complete could not be run. Contact your support personnel or package vendor. Action VerifyIfBetaVersionIsInstalled, entry: VerifyIfBetaVersionIsInstalled, library: C:\WINDOWS\Installer\MSI8494.tmp

So my assumption is the 'VerifyIfBetaVersionIsInstalled' command is what's actually causing the error in the MSI installer. I'm going to wipe out the temp folder and reset its permissions, then see if that makes any difference - I suspect the fact I can't change permissions/access in the usual manner means something funky is going on with that particular folder.

Unfortunately this didn't make any difference. I checked the permissions were correct, I even purged the folder entirely and recreated it... no luck. The only difference now is instead of forcing me to reboot before seeing the error message, it simply pops up the error message and cancels the install (after sending a bug report).

I want to thank you for sharing the results after following the suggestions above. Since the error still pops up even after resetting the required permissions and running the diagnostic tool, let's consider downloading the new installer package instead.

This is to determine if the error is related to how your computer receives the installation file. You can do so by going to the Downloads and Updates page and download the QuickBooks Pro Plus package. Once done, use this article for the steps to install the file: Install QuickBooks Desktop.

This didn't make a difference unfortunately - apologies for the late reply as this hasn't been a huge priority for us. I am going to try @Jim7Mc 's suggestion below and report back, as I suspect this may be the case.

Sorry for the very, very late response. Been going through back and forth trying to arrange a good time to fully remove all the Redists... but, sadly, it did not make a difference. Still the same error, but at least the error screen doesn't disappear immediately (yay?)

If anyone has any further suggestions I'm all ears, but at this point I'm going to pin it on Windows or the previous Quickbooks causing issues and just reload the computer. I'll mark the Redist as a solution as that seems to be helping others.

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