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Forced QuickBooks Patches Fix

Unwanted QuickBooks Patches

It appears that Intuit is now forcing the download and installation of QuickBooks patches – whether or not you need them – on their schedule and not yours. If the option to turn off Automatic Updates is disabled, that’s why!

I remember when Intuit – somewhat wisely – noted that, especially for QB Enterprise, it is very important to allow the customer to decide when to install updates. It was stated this was to help them control downtime, the risk of a patch error during business hours, and so on. For example, an Enterprise customer may want to have their IT department install updates on all their computers at once after-hours or on the weekend to avoid disturbing business operations.

It seems Intuit has collectively forgotten this important gem of knowledge.

How To Block Forced Patches

To defeat the intrusive practice of forcing updates and install updates when you want to (or not at all), follow these steps, which are basically to:

  1. Locate and delete the contents of the folder where QuickBooks puts waiting patches.
  2. Deny write permissions to the folder.

Locate the Update folder

Method 1: In QuickBooks, pick Update QuickBooks Desktop… from the Help menu. Click on the Options tab. The folder will be listed under the Download Location label:

Method 2: If you cannot run QuickBooks because you’ll be forced to install the patch, the folder will probably be similar to the one shown above.

The exact name of the folder is determined by your QB version, and will be something like:

C:\Program Data\Intuit\[QuickBooks Version Name]\Components\DownloadQB[Version Number]\

Where the version number is the version year + 10:  E.g. QuickBooks 2021 is version 31.  QuickBooks 2020 is version 30.  QuickBooks Enterprise 20.0 is version 30.

 

Navigate to the folder

Use File Explorer (Windows Explorer in older versions of Windows.)

If you do not see the C:\Program Data folder, you’ll need to edit your Folder options to show hidden files and folders:

  • Using Windows 10.0, click the View tab in File Explorer and check the box next to “Hidden Items”.
  • Using Windows 7.0, pick Organize from the Windows Explorer menu, then Folder and Search Options, then the View tab, then in the Advanced Settings list under Hidden files and folders, choose Show hidden files, folders, and drives.

 

Delete the contents of the \Download[Version Number] folder

…but not the folder itself:

 

Deny write rights to the folder

Right click the folder and choose Properties.

Then click Security and then click the Edit button to change permissions.

Then for the Everyone and System users, explicitly Deny write permissions, like this. Be sure to click the Apply button after changing the setting:

That’s it!

 

Notes

  • These steps will disable QuickBooks ability to update itself, automatically or from the Help menu manually.
  • Later, if you want to patch QuickBooks you can either change permissions back to allow Writing to the folder or download the patch from Intuit’s website and apply it.