I finally got this to work. Agonizing. Intuit, no help at all, there help is the worst, including even trying to connect with them. Tried all their solutions, but to no avail. My solution that finally worked on getting the downloaded file to install without the notorious "failed to extract archive" message. The solution is making sure that anti-virus and firewalls are off, but with one very important addition that Intuit does not mention. Ok, here are my steps:
1. Delete all downloaded turbotax install files. Those pesky .exe files that kept giving the failed to extract message. In your download directory you shouldn't have any of those.
2. Turn-off your anti-virus and firewall settings. I use Norton 360 so I disabled those for 1 hour in the software.
3. Download your turbotax installation file again. Make note of where it gets downloaded to (i.e. which directory).
4. This is the key Important part that made the difference. Need to add the downloaded turbotax install file as an exclusion for Microsoft Defender Antivirus. Here is how you do that:
a. Open Windows Settings. Can get to by clicking on Windows Start icon and selecting PC Settings.
b. Click the Update and Security, then Windows Security, then Virus and Threat protection.
c. In the Virus and Threat protection window, scroll down and find "Virus & Threat Protection settings" and select Manage settings.
d. In the window that opens, scroll down and find "Exclusions" and click on Add or remove exclusions.
e. Click Add an exclusion and select File. Browse to the folder where you downloaded the turbotax install file and select it and click Open. This should now add that file in the Exclusions list.
5. Now go find that turbotax install file and double-click it to install. Hopefully it will work without the dreaded "Failed to extract" message.
In summary, it looks like Microsoft Defender Antivirus is the culprit. But, if you are using another anti-virus like Norton, you can't really turn Microsoft Defender off. By default, it seems to still be checking files in the background. So adding that turbotax install file as an exclusion seems to tell Defender to ignore it.
Really hope this helps others, as it was a huge 3 day frustration for me and Intuit offered no help whatsoever. Best to all.
