Problems Accessing Turbotax Desktop on Windows 11 Computer

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Can anyone tell me how to reliably access Turbotax Desktop for the 2023, 2024, & 2025 tax years?

Accessing Turbotax Deluxe Desktop for these tax years is very problematic using my Windows 11 desktop computer. Often, after the program has check for and installed updates, it displays the popups shown in the attached screenshots for these years.

In all 3 cases, the “Activate TurboTax” button does not respond to single- or double-clicking with the cursor positioned over it. At the moment, I only have access to 2025, which is currently running, but risk losing future access if I close it.

In each case, the four trailing characters of the license are correct. (I’ve removed my email address from these screenshots that appeared in the bottom left corner of the image for privacy.)

I have tried lunching it as Administrator, adding https://*.intuit.com to Trusted Sites with security level medium, disabling Bitdefender. Windows is up to date.

Note that it is only in the case of the 2023 edition does the popup display make literal sense (because in that case I was attempting to install Turbotax on a computer acquired after it was used to prepare my 2023 return on a Windows 10 computer). In the 2024 and 2025 cases, Turbotax had previously been installed on the newer computer.

I note that “blam404” has previously posted concerning the same issue [ttlc.intuit.com/community/get-your-taxes-done-using-turbotax-6/trying-to-activate-premier-2024-81653]. However, the OP’s solution reported subsequently (“click the box that contained ‘This account has a license code.’ The ‘Activate TurboTax’ button then turned responsive”) doesn’t work for me.

Another reported solution to the problem, involving temporarily reducing the resolution of one’s monitor from 1920 X 1080, worked once with the 2025 edition, but not subsequently.

(The activation counts in the 2024 and 2025 displays are a result of another problem, also reported by others on Intuit Community: the software demanding that the program be activated again, even though it is already installed on the computer.)

I have used Turbotax every year since the mid 1980’s, but recent problems incentivize me to try a competing program for preparing my 2026 tax returns.

M-MTax

Level 15

You could try the following:

Windows 11 introduces a security layer called Smart App Control which can block background scripts that connect TurboTax to its activation servers, rendering the final "Activate" step unresponsive.

Open your Windows Start Menu, type Smart App Control, and open it.
If it is set to "Evaluation" or "On", try turning it Off temporarily to check if the button becomes interactive. (Note: If turned completely off, Windows requires a reinstall to turn it back on, so alternatively check your Windows Exploit Protection settings to ensure Intuit executables aren't being restricted).