Quicken Home Inventory on Windows 10

Microsoft is offering free upgrade to Windows 10, and I figured I should try it. Although my main system is Mac now, free is free and I decided to test it.

Of course, one of the main questions was whether Quicken Home Inventory would work on it and the question is still no. My next question is whether Attic Manager works and it does. As you already know form my previous posts, Attic Manager can load QHI databases so I can access all that data it took me years to enter.

I first tried with the inventories I converted earlier and everything works as before. Then I talked with some friends who wanted to convert their Quicken databases and here's what we found:

.idb files load directly into Windows 10 copy of Attic Manager without problems.

.mdf and .qhi files cannot be loaded on Windows 10 directly. You first have to install Attic Manager on Windows XP (I checked guacosoft.com, they say Windows 7 would also work), load the database there and then use Attic's backup/restore function to transfer the data to Windows 10. So, yes, we lost like 20 minutes doing this, but now my friend has his QHI database on his brand new Windows 10.

I'm amazed how this simple program keeps working on every new version of Windows that comes out, without even updating the program to newer release.

Quicken Home Inventory on Mac OSX [SOLVED]

Moving away from Windows to Mac was something I planned to do for a very long time. But, there were some Windows programs that do not work under Mac, and Bootcamp seems too complicated for me. Also, running Windows under VM just for one application is too slow for my liking. I just want to click and run the app, not wait for entire operating system to startup. Anyway, one of those apps is Attic Manager. I migrated from Quicken Home Inventory some time ago, and AM has shown to be a nice little program that does its job well. It is simple, but also very quick. Even if I did not migrate from QHI, I would pick this one to track my stuff.

Now, I just read on another blog that Attic Manager version for Mac is out. Apparently it was tested and works on MacOSX 10.9 Mavericks, and website says it supports 10.7 and never, so this means it's a 64bit program.

I tested the trial version on friend's Mac, and it seems to work the same way Windows version does. I tried loading the .IDB database from old Quicken into it, and it worked flawlessly. Then I transferred my Attic Manager database from Windows using Backup on Windows and Restore on Mac. So, what does this mean:

Attic Manager can load your QHI inventory database and you can then use it (add items, update information, edit locations, etc.) on Mac.

Looks like I might be getting a new Mac soon :)

Anyway, if you have a Mac and you're stuck on Windows because of Quicken Home Inventory Manager, just go, download Attic Manager and forget about all the problems:

http://www.guacosoft.com/attic

Note that you need at least the Pro version to be able to load QHI files. If you aren't converting from Quicken, but just want a cheap, nice, clean and simple Home Inventory program for Mac, then buy the Standard version.

Well, that's all. If you do run it on Mac, please leave a comment to this post.

Did you get QHI.EXE error 142? Here's a fix.

I got some people contacting me after reading my blog. Apparently, some of them expected the Intuit would fix the problem by now, and Quicken Home Inventory would work on their new computer. But, no, that's not the case. Trying to run QHI.EXE on new 64-bit Windows machine, would only result in darn 142 error.

Or something like: "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000142). Click on OK to terminate the application."

Don't worry, it is not a problem with your computer, it's just that QHI.EXE is not 64-bit compatible.

As I suggested before, just buy Attic Manager program, import QHI database into it and enjoy.

P.S. Guacosoft.com made some changes in Attic Manager versions, so you'll need either Professional or XD version to be able to import QHI files.

Quicken Home Inventory Manager standalone on Windows 64bit

I got some comments to my previous posts how QHIM standalone that uses MDF files is much faster than the old versions, so I decided to give it a shot.

It still does not work on Windows 7 64bit!

However, that is not the main problem. I installed it on old XP box. The database is really faster, looks like indexes are properly used. However, the UI is still crappy and slow. It still looks and feels bloated. I really don't know why they do not use proper Windows controls provided by Microsoft, like most other inventory software does.

Most of the other issues are still not fixed like low resolution thumbnails, limited printing options, compatibility with newer versions of Windows and no ability to export data. The last one is really Intuit trying to lock the customers from moving away to better products.

And here's a solution:

Just use Attic Manager. It works, it's faster, it can import your QHI database and you can export it into Excel and then you're free from this crazy vendor lock-in.

What amazes me is that new QHIM standalone requires me to download about 600MB of software (Microsoft SQL Server, .Net support, etc.) while Attic Manager does all it does and more with only 3MB of download. That's 200 times less download for the same functionality. And Attic Manager works on Windows 7 as well. Now, somebody please tell me again that QHIM is not completely bloated piece of software. And yes, I understand that having Quick Books or other product installed would require less download, but we're talking about QHIM standalone here. What's the point of having a standalone version, if, in order to use it as standalone, you need to download a whole bunch of crap?

Anyway, let's just forget about that. As I wrote before: just go and buy Attic Manager. You won't regret it.

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.

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.

No Linux version

I switched my desktop computers to Linux about 2 years ago. Everything works fine, even hardware support is now great.

Of course, QHIM does not run on Linux. It runs so crappy on Windows, why would I expect more. I wish I could easily switch to some other program if only it would allow me to import my inventory database from Quicken (2000+ items).

A friend of mine advised me to try running it under Wine, but it does not really work. Apparently, all the custom UI stuff I wrote about before is not standard Windows API, so it cannot be ported. Oh, well.