Registration for QuickBooks 2008 Simple Start

It's my pleasure to assist you today, m_ridzon.

QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) releases a new version every year and only supports the software for up to 3 years. If you're using QuickBooks for basic accounting and record-keeping purposes, then you can continue to use any old version of QuickBooks Desktop 2008. Since it's an old version and wants to open it on another computer, you'll need to register it in the new one.

If you have issues registering, I suggest contacting our QuickBooks Support. This requires a thorough investigation from our technical support so they can work on this in a secure environment as well.

1. In your QuickBooks Desktop program, go to Help > QuickBooks Desktop Help.
2. In the Have a Question window, click the Contact Us link at the bottom.
3. From the Contact Us page, select any topics.
4. Under Here's how to connect with a QuickBooks expert section, click the Start a Message or Get Phone Number button.

You can also get our direct phone number on this link: Contact QuickBooks Desktop support.

Please check this article to learn more about the discontinuation policy of QuickBooks Desktop: QuickBooks Desktop service discontinuation policy and upgrade information.

Alternatively, you can download the free trial and most updated version of the software and then open the backup company file from there.

For the complete instructions on how to download the trial version, kindly check out this link: Download a trial of QuickBooks Desktop.

After the complete download, you can now restore the old file. To do this, here's how:

1. Open QuickBooks.
2. Select the File menu, then Open or Restore Company...
3. Restore the file based on its type: Windows backup file (.qbb)

Learn more about the process of restoring your file through this article: Restore your file.

However, if you have add-on services such as payroll, online banking, and merchant services, I recommend upgrading the software to a supported version. Once you have the latest version, it would be best to know  What’s new in QuickBooks Desktop 2021.
 

Additionally, here's a link that will help you learn more about how the product works: Help articles for QuickBooks Desktop.

Keep in touch if you need any more assistance managing your QuickBooks Desktop account. I've got your back. Have a great day ahead!

This is proving to be more difficult than I figured it would be.  I called Support, but their phone associates can only offer support in terms of today's products:  QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop.  Neither of those terms existed in 2008, so the associates are confused.  

I'll try to call again today to get a different associate.

I hit a dead-end.  Registration was not required in 2008.  Consequently, the Intuit system doesn't show any "phone number" or "zip code" that is tied to my license purchase.  

The software currently works on my existing machine.  Is there any way to map its installation over to my new machine?  I imagine the current machine may have registry keys to enable its functionality.  Or maybe the key(s) is stored in the installation directory?

I appreciate you getting back to us, @m_ridzon. I’ll provide further information about older versions of QuickBooks.

Regarding mapping the installation of your company to the other computer, I highly suggest consulting with your IT.

If the data is available, we strive to provide customer support when it comes to registration and licensing of older versions under Intuit’s standard terms and conditions. Nevertheless, there’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to provide codes or offer data and password recovery for older versions of it.

You might also consider checking this article about when does the service discontinuation happen: QuickBooks Desktop service discontinuation policy.

If you have further concerns in mind, don’t hesitate to post them here on the Community page. I’ll make sure to get back as soon as I can. Stay safe!

Folks, I finally figured it out and I want to share what I learned in case anyone else digs up this thread later, with a similar problem. Last night, in a daze, while staring and waiting for my old slow PC, not even thinking about QuickBooks, I noticed a file in Windows Explorer titled, "QuickBooks Validation Code." Evidently, 12yrs ago, I wrote down the validation code in that document and tucked it away in my PC files. My file explorer happened to be open to that directory last night and evidently, I forgot about the file. Haha! Lo and behold, I typed the code into the new PC and voila...IT WORKED!! I was super thrilled!  However, I realize folks coming to this thread may not have their activation code at all.  Therefore, read on for a work around...

While troubleshooting the issue, I was browsing the web and found THIS PAGE. I learned that the following file is what tells QuickBooks whether it is 1) in a 30-day trial, 2) outside of the 30-day trial and needing registered, or 3) registered and operable.

"C:\ProgramData\Intuit\Entitlement Client\v5\EntitlementDataStore.ecml"

The file is binary, so I don't know what it contains. I tried to copy/paste the old PC's ECML file to the new PC. However, QuickBooks errored during launch; i.e., it would not even open to the start screen to tell me it needed registered. So I deleted the ECML file altogether. Lo and behold, QuickBooks opened perfectly fine on the new PC, but the 30-day free trial was restarted at 0 days. Thus, had I not found my validation code, as mentioned in my first paragraph, I would have been content to merely delete the ECML file once a month so I could continue using the software. In my opinion, that file deletion is a very minor setback, in exchange for continued use of the software.  So hopefully, this will help someone else if they would like to continue using their old version of QuickBooks.

Hello, m_ridzon.

Thanks for sharing your solution. I'm sure other users who has similar problem with the registration will find the information useful.

Thank you, same problem to me but it works now, much appreciated.

Thanks!  I am going to check that on my laptop with my old 2010 program to see if the file is indeed there also. 

RE:  QuickBooks Simple Start 2010 problem with Registration / Activation  FIXED / SOLVED:

Running Windows 10

Hello! 

Just before finishing my taxes (seriously), and a month after a re-install on a new PC,  I encountered the error messages below.  I contacted Intuit, and I could not beg or pay for them to tell me how to access/change/delete the file which causes the popup error messages, so I can use the f*c&ing software which I paid for.  I did go to camps.intuit.com, logged in, and I could see my product and that it is active.  But Intuit has no interest in small business solutions; they just want to upsell. 

I did not try deleting the ecml file; but I can try that next month.  What I did is run a diagnostic and repair tool I found online many years ago:  QBInstall_Tool_v2 from 2016.  It was on my computer, so I ran it, and voila, QB opened!  I am guessing I will have to do another workaround in 30 days.   I hope one of these 2 solutions works for all y’all!

[QuickBooks Error Messages:

Quickbooks has reached the maximum number of unregistered uses.  To continue using quickbooks, you must register now.

Unable to activate.

Your quickbooks activation isn’t complete.

You’ve exceeded the allowed number of activations.]

@cairographics 

QB Desktop 2010 doesn't support Win 10 natively. You can try to reinstall and run in Win 7 or 8 compatibility mode. Another option, use a newer version to run on Win 10.

@4Gal 

I have been running QB 2008 on Win10 for a few years since I started this post.  No issues at all.  Nor do I run it in compatibility mode.  So although, it may not be supported, it still seems to work.