Archive for future reference via Excel, etc.

[Greg Grote]

Hi All.  After a few years of on-again-off-again contemplation of various options, we have finally decided to move to another personal finance program. I've used MS Money for 27 years and I've loved it, but it's starting to show some quirks in Win 11 and I don't want to risk the next Windows update or whatever pulling the rug out from under me.

With 27 years of data (11 currently in the program, and 16 in archives), we've decided to just start from scratch on Jan 1, rather than trying to transfer all (or even some) of the data, because that allows us to rethink categories and such now that we're both retired.  I'll run Money in parallel for at least a few months, just to be sure, but then I'll retire it.

Of course I still want to be able to access the data in the future, and as nearly as I can tell, the most straightforward option is to export each applicable account to QIF and use a QIF-to-CSV converter so that I can open the files in Excel or whatever.

Are there other options that I should consider?  Thanks!

[Stephen Google]

We are dying to know what software you are moving to. I have no problems with Money 2005 which was the last UK version in Windows 11.

[Cal Learner]

Greg, what quirks do you see introduced with Windows 11 that were not present on Money Plus Sunset running on Windows 7? Money has the advantage of no-new-bugs-being-added.... We know how to deal with those known to exist, including the mnyob99.dll patch.

As to fear of a future Windows incompatibility, I expect Windows 7 or Windows 98SE could run in a virtual processor. There has even been some success described here running with WINE with Linux. That reportedly has quirks so far.

[Cal Learner]

Correction, not Window98SE, but XP should work I think.

[Greg Grote]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Stephen, I'll assume that first comment was tongue in cheek, so I won't bother you with my opinions on other packages, LOL.

Cal, that's a good point about the upside of having a static version.  I had not heard of (or didn't recall) the dll patch you mentioned ... doing a quick read online, it appears that it was created to help with Win 8, which I never used (I went straight from 7 to 10, and now 11), but perhaps at some point I picked up the new dll, either intentionally or unwittingly.

I really should've created a note document to list the "quirks" to which I referred, but I guess I'm typically in the mode of accomplishing the task at hand and don't stop to document the issues I bump into (I would make a lousy software tester, I guess).  But I can offer one example that I can recall because I have to do a manual workaround every month: after moving from my old Win10 PC (which was bought as a Win7 PC and then later moved straight to 10) to my new Win11 PC a year ago, I noted that I am now unable to update my mortgage payment details.  I don't recall the exact error that I'm getting, but after spending too much time trying to figure it out, and since I only have a few payments left, I simply reverted to letting the payment post each month and then I update the escrow amount.

I admit that there are a lot of potential variables here ... for example, I can't say for sure that the version I downloaded and installed on this PC (17.0.150.3817) is exactly the same as the one I was running on my old PC, which had been running on that PC since I bought it over 15 years ago. So I guess it's not 100% confirmed that it's purely a Win11 thing.

The other thing with Money is how slow it can get when it has a lot of data ... it's better on my new PC, but still not great. (Side note:  I'm familiar with the tip about replacing rather than editing entries in the Bills summary.)

So, at the end of the day, count me as a longtime fan, but I'm afraid I view Money as a tool and not a hobby, so after 26 years I think it's time for a new tool.  Thanks again for your replies.

[Cal Learner]

Cal, that's a good point about the upside of having a static version.  I had not heard of (or didn't recall) the dll patch you mentioned ... doing a quick read online, it appears that it was created to help with Win 8, which I never used (I went straight from 7 to 10, and now 11), but perhaps at some point I picked up the new dll, either intentionally or unwittingly.

Patch is needed for Microsoft Sunset versions for all Windows versions and future versions.

https://microsoftmoneyoffline.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/windows-8-64-bit-version-compatibility-with-sunset-money/ is some good info. The bug takes  a somewhat random jump, and what code is at that random target can change with even Windows updates. Sometimes there is no noticable problem, but other times big problem. If you search for mnyob99.dll here or elsewhere, you will find a lot of info, and almost all is talking about this bug/patch.