Saturday, May 5, 2012

How to use Quicken Home Inventory on 64-bit Windows 7 [RESOLVED]

Finally, a light at the end of the tunnel.

After all the problems with QHIM I had before, it looks like I'm finally moving away from it, but keeping my inventory instead. I noticed a software called Attic Manager before, but only now that I tested it, I can say that this is the real deal.

If you want to keep using your QHIM database on your brand new Windows machine, read on:

With Attic Manager you can import your Quicken Home Inventory database in just a couple of seconds. The IDB and QHI files I had imported directly on Windows 7 machine without installing anything else. I looks like import from MDF files works as well. I haven't tried myself, but it says so on Attic Manager website.

Beside being able to keep my inventory, I'm still happy about some issues that QHIM has and have been fixed in Attic:

1. Speed. Attic Manager is super fast even with my 2000+ items.

2. Item pictures. Attic Manager (optionally) stored full-resolution pictures. This means I can print all the receipts, invoices and other documents at any time - and they would look like originals.

3. Thumbnail browser. Just switch to thumbnail view, type some text in the search box and browse through your items visually. Have 500+ coins or stamps in collection? No problem, you can spot the exact one you're looking for at once.

4. Printing complete details. Unlike QHIM, with Attic Manager you can select which item attributes you want printed, with option to print all.

5. Export data. Ability to export data and import it into Excel. Makes all the calculations much easier.

6. Sub-locations. No longer pondering whether to clutter the location list with closets and drawers or make stuff harder to find later. Just add closet as sub-location to the room, and you're done. Searching the room searches the closet as well.

7. All this works on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP - both 32 and 64 bit. And it also works on Linux.

Need I write more? If you're using QHIM and are desperate to switch... just go and buy Attic Manager right now. You won't regret it.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Running on Windows 7

Another bump on the road for Quicken Home Inventory. I got a brand new laptop with Windows 7 and it simply does not work. Support says we in the dark about this, it's end of life for the product.

I'm searching for some alternatives now, but would hate to retype all my 2000+ items.

Update: I found a software called Attic Manager that is able to import the database and works on Windows 7. More details in my next blog post after I test it.