Intuit Data Protect

I am the IT guy where I work, I disabled data protect in the startup on all our machines but ever since the R4 update came out data protect now starts up automatically every time Quickbooks starts up.  This is insane!  There has to be a way to prevent it from starting up included in the menu preferences for the end user.

Why does Quickbooks do this to us all the time?  They have great software ... if they would quit worrying about marketing their optional add-in products, like dataprotect, forms service etc. and write code that makes the end user happy instead of trying to sell us on all the other stuff they offer, I know allot of Quickbooks users that would be allot happier with their products.

Thanks for the reply ... and I agree with your analysis.

The editing of IntuitDataProtect.exe worked, but only sporadically and was sorey lacking so I devised an alternate workaround by compiling my own IntuitDataProtect.exe to replace the one included with quickbooks.  See this thread:

community.intuit.com/posts/2011-r4-cannot-stop-data-protect-from-launching

Scroll down toward the bottom for my responses ... I included a download link to the file I created for those that want to use it... I understand peoples trepidation about downloading a ZIP file containing an exe, but I have no malicious intent, I am just trying to help like everyone else. I can tell you this, it does work, it does NOT leave an error message nor does it flash or hang on a dos window and it prevents data protect from starting.   In installed on all 28 workstations where I work and it works great!   Data protect does NOT start anymore!  YAY!

Like I said, I have 28 computers in my work environment that I am responsible for, that's 28 users I have to keep happy.  If they are not happy, well, I catch it all!   I want happy users cause they are the most productive. 

For me to have to answer the same questions over and over .. "Why is this marketing thing from Quickbooks popping up?"  " Why is this (data protect) running when we don't even use it?" And that little nag in the sidebar of the homepage "You are only partially protected, Activate Data Protect today"  That shameless little bit fear-mongering on Intuits part had the business owner where I work  thinking his company data was NOT being protected .. Thanks Intuit! 

So, do you think the folks from Intuit actually read these forums kuban?? One has to wonder.

You can be assured that Intuit reads these things. That doesn't mean it will be changed, but they do see these comments.

I tried to take CCRussels advice and edit my post, remove the link etc. etc. but when I log in to that thread, I have no option to edit available to me...well, I tried ... anyway, if you have any further questions about the file, installation etc. etc. you can reply here or email me directly ... email address is pvenlet(at)agritek.com  ... replace the (at) the the @ symbol of course ... would not want to get spammed to death ya know!

Cheers!

Peter Venlet

I don't buy that analysis ... I just downloaded the file myself, scanned with 4 different tools, and the file is clean...You are most likely getting a false positive from whatever product you are using and that is not unusual.  I scanned with Malewarebytes, Microsoft Security Essentials and Kaspersky,  and it came up clean in all of these.

May I ask, please, What scanning tool did you use?  I did, however, remove the file from our company website ... last thing I want is anyone blaming me for something, like a virus, that I did NOT create.

UPDATE:  I submitted my file to VirusTotal, A website that does comprehensive scanning using 43 different scanning tools to check for infections, The file passed 41 of 43 scanners.  Scanners from AntiVir (Makers of Avira) and Emsisoft (Anti-maleware) showed infections but they are false positives and the file received a safety score of 100% safe.

Mr. Russell

I generally stay on the sidelines and let other folks do a lot of talking and I let my actions speak for me. But, your firm's inclusion of Data Protect and the blocking of my ability to remove it has gotten under my skin. How about pass on to your boss and your boss's boss and your boss's boss's boss that this kind of behavior is gathering Intuit no friends in the IT community.

I own an IT firm and run Quickbooks Enterprise, so that means I spend a lot of money with your firm annually myself. Additionally, I have about 50 clients all of which are small businesses that need a small business accounting system. As as their trusted advisor, I am in a position to directly affect whether those folks use a Quickbooks solution or whether they implement a Peachtree or other vendor solution.

If enough folks like myself become dissatisfied with your method and manner of doing business, there will not be any business for you to do.

As has been said previously, you make a fairly decent product, that generally does what it claims to do. But, continuing to include embedded advertising that cannot be removed from the software is not a wise thing to do. If you recall Microsoft embedded Internet Explorer into their OS so that it was not removeable, got themselves sued and lost and had to redesign the OS to allow for removal.

In the end, we vote with our dollars on how well we like what you are doing.

Now some suit sitting in a VP Sales position can certainly say just ignore the comments I have made, but, he does so at his own peril.  If he or she does not make his/her numbers and they are out the door and some other suit replaces him who might decide to pay attention. However, ignoring the requests of the folks who purchase or influence the purchase of your products is, in my opinion, dangerous ground to tread on.

I would strongly suggest that someone in your organization initiate a Request for Software Enhancement to allow for the removal of Data Protect by the end user.

I will now climb off my soapbox and go back to work.

Replying to "mistercomputerman": You are under the mistaken impression that I'm an employee of Intuit. Far from it. I am an independent businessperson and a user of QuickBooks myself. I have no control or involvement with the design of QuickBooks - in fact, in my blog I frequently criticize Intuit's decisions.

I am a volunteer in this forum, and have been assigned "co-moderator" status due to the amount of time I spend in the forum.

I removed the link to the downloaded program because (1) it is dangerous to have people putting links to EXE files here that haven't been reviewed by anyone else, and (2) there WERE complaints from other posters about potential problems with corruption in the file. The poster also described HOW the file was created, which allows others to duplicate the efforts, and I recommended that he just tell people to contact him directly for a copy of the file. Those approaches would fit within the guidelines for this user-to-user forum.

I don't like how Intuit uses the products we buy to promote and advertise on our desktop. I know that sometimes Intuit introduces new bugs in their maintenance releases (I've written about this many times), and the IDP problem is an example of that. As stated by kuban89, they have acknowledged this problem and have a fix planned - I know that they have SEVERAL bugs that need to be fixed that were introduced in the R4 release.

Hello Mr. Russell

You are correct. I mistakenly identified you as an Intuit employee as a result of your moderator status.

My apologies for the misdirected post.

I guess a better title to the post would be:

An Open Message to Intuit.

Would you like for me to modify the post, removing the references to you, so that others to not make the same assumption I did based on my post?

Not a problem - it is a common misconception. Co-Moderators have one foot in the door - we have special privelages accorded to us by Intuit. But that only relates to our ability to do some limited things in this forum. No need for you to edit your comment.

But, buried in a threaded discussion like this, your original concept won't get a lot of visibility.

And, as noted by others, Intuit has recognized that this particular issue is an error and should be working on a release to correct it.

Kuban89:

No worries.  It is always better to err on the safe side.  I am not in the market of disappointing people, quite the contrary, so I understand where you were coming from.

Out of my own curiousity, and for what it's worth,  I made a couple more test executables with the AutoIT compiler I used to create my original file and sent them in for a scan to the online file scanning service (VirusTotal.com) for analysis.  I got the same results from those compiled exe's as what I had posted on earlier.  It seems the latest version of AutoIT compiler, according to their forum, has a bug in their software that has caused this  false positive problem and they are working to repair it though it is interesting that it only affects 2 anti-virus vendors.

Any-way, Thanks again for the apology, accepted, BTW.

Peter Venlet, Agritek Industries, Inc.

I found another solution that works with QB2012 without other bugs (yet).

Beat the system. I found a file called IDPScheduler.cfg which has the dates of last backup and next scheduled backup in the text.

Open the file in Notepad and change the dates. There are several dates in there and I changed them all. Just changed the year (2011) to (2015).

Now quickbooks doesn't think about the backup at all. The file is located at

C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Local Settings\Application Data\Intuit\Intuit Data Protect