This happened to me after successfully using it in Vista for almost a whole week. It was nigh-on impossible to find a solution to this so I hope Google has been kind to you today and this helps. If not, abuse them. It won’t fix anything but they thoroughly deserve it.

This is (if you’re lucky) an easy fix. It is all about how QuickBooks uses Internet Exploder, sorry – Internet Explorer as its internal browser. QB, apparently, is so shoddily coded that it expects IE’s security to grant permissions for all its hacks. Here’s how to let it do that…

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Go to the Tools Menu
3. Click Internet Options
4. Click the Security tab
5. In the Security level area, click on Custom Level
6. I set the level to Medium-High (Default)
7. Click on the Reset button on the bottom right
8. Click ok on everything on your way out.

I have had QuickBooks working on windows XP, Vista, and even Windows Server 2008 with only the usual level of issues. It also seems to work ok with Internet Exploder 7 & 8 Beta 2. It uses Internet Exploder even if you have another browser set as the default. I use Firefox.

I have also heard reports that you need to turn the User Account Control off in Vista (in the Windows Security Center).

For the technically-minded – the shoddy code in QuickBooks generates an Access Violation Error which is the programming equivalent of a knockback. The implication there is that the program’s approach is also the equivalent of behavior that “had it coming”. When I searched the QuickBooks support (LOL) forum for "Access Violation" I get 9359 responses. I gave up in there before I looked elsewhere for this answer, ironically from a user in their forum. I think they might have big a problem there. If Google brought you here then QuickBooks is still living in denial. Personally I think they spend all of their money on marketing and bugger-all on development or User eXperience testing

I’m not a fan of QuickBooks but it seems like the lesser of many evils at the present time. Just remember – MYOB sucks worse and so does doing it all by hand.