Quickbooks 2006 Update Error Guide: How to Make Them Go Away

QuickBooks 2006 Premier can be difficult to update in any Windows environment, (and a nightmare in Windows Vista--for which the product is not supported nor recommended). However, there are a few tricks and tips which can smooth the process.

The trouble begins when opening QuickBooks to use a company file. QuickBooks is configured to automatically check for updates. It finds one, asks if you want to install now, and if you choose "yes" you start down a rabbit hole of incomplete updates and error messages informing the user that the update may have already been applied. Even so, the update request continues to appear. And if you choose "no" to update later you are still faced with the same pop-up question on every subsequent log-in. There is no quick way to make the update request disappear for good.

If you have this problem, there are a couple of things to check. First go to the Intuit support site at support.quickbooks.intuit.com and make sure that you have the latest QuickBooks security update installed. The option for this is second on their list of items that appears once you have indicated which software version you are using. Follow their instructions for installation. After installing the security update, install the web patch as well. It takes a lot longer--especially if you don't have high-speed access--but in my experience with running the same QuickBooks Premier 2006 product on multiple workstations, this web patch is absolutely necessary for ironing out some of the software's kinks.

Intuit's site is quick to point out that they have solutions to some common installation errors that may occur while running the web patch. Errors 1603 and 1328 are the ones they discuss first and foremost, and are the easiest to work around. I had a stroke of good luck when it came to these errors, and I didn't experience them at all when working in Windows XP or in Windows 2000. However, once we added a few machines with Windows Vista, I discovered both of them. Sadly, had I done my research, they never needed to have caused me any trouble at all.