It seems to be a display issue. I was using my laptop docked to a 36" secondary monitor, but after waiting over 30 minutes for customer support, and another 20 minutes with the poor man trying to figure out how to help me in my tearful frustration, I decided to disconnect everything, uninstall TurboTax, reinstall it on my laptop with nothing else connected, and it worked! It didn't push me to the activation screen at all.
So I have learned that the software is not built for brand new computers or set-ups that include docking stations. I am not able to do my tax return with the luxury of a large font and screen for my eyes, but at least I can open my file and get this over with.
