Blank activation screen

[MontereyJohn]

I've got no exceptional computer skill or expertise. I simply changed the resolution to 800 by 600, left the scale at 125%, and the login contents displayed in the dialog box. Using a brand new Dell XPS 13 with Windows 10.

Suggest you at least try a few other common old-fashion screen resolutions.

Pretty clear its a TurboTax problem. This thread is mostly about finding a temporary workaround.

[EbonyL122824]

@winifish Please contact customer support here for further assistance.

[jaw21]

I tried all these but it did not resolve my issue. I did however remove the DUET app from my PC and my problem is gone.

[c_sadams]

screen scaling worked for me.  After 3 days of trying to re-install, and installing ran across this solution.  Intuit needs to resolve this simple issue as it is very frustrating.

[Joyce45]

This worked for me. Make sure to restart TurboTax before changing back to original scaling.

[barbhunt07]

Thank you, that worked for me as well!  I don't believe that I would have ever been able to figure that out on my own!!

[squrldog]

Just wanted to post/include a slightly different method for resolving this issue that I found on the webpage link posted by BrandiLO.  The page in includes a different set of options to try for this situation. 

Ultimately, I had to use the "Run as Administrator" option (available when you right click the Turbo Tax icon) in order to have things open correctly.  I tried the resolution options mentioned, none of which worked for me by themselves. 

All of that said, I do want to include that while the "Run as Administrator" option was what allowed the activation window to open and display correctly... I was in the 800x600 resolution when I opened the application.  However, I think for my situation, it was the administrative privileges that fixed it. 

[TinaY]

Yes.  It's the scaling problem.  Everything is fine now.  Thank you very much!

[jackjerico]

Great advice. The flip to 100% worked perfectly.

[taxpayerNM]

Temporarily disabled McAfee firewall and changed "Size of Apps.." setting to 100% and Activation worked immediately.  Thanks for recommendations.

This is major defect of Intuit's part and I will leave review accordingly.

[stoodabk]

Worked for me as well, very annoying, been using TT for many years

[tanyatax]

Changing the resolution worked and I was able to activate my TurboTax and then changed the resolution back and can now access the program. But what a stupid thing to have to do in order to activate the software. Had I not known where to look for the solution, I'd be even more frustrated. I would think a software company like Intuit could resolve this issue in development. Inferior programming and poor quality control. :( 

[grdhou]

I changed screen resolution as well for both TT 2019 and 2020 and was able to activate both programs.  I encountered this on a new laptop with Windows 10 (Load 20H2) .

[gewitt]

worked for me.   Boy is that stupid.

[Jasper01]

Here is the solution that worked for me:

Blank screen issue

If you get a blank screen instead of the activation window, you may have a DPI (Dots per inch) issue. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Open the Windows Display Settings on your system.
2. Locate the Scale and Layout section, and change the size of text, apps, and other items to 100%.
3. In the Resolution box, select a resolution that is lower than the one it’s set to. For example, if the resolution is set to 2048 X 1152, choose 1920 X 1080.

If changing the DPI (Dots per inch) doesn’t fix the problem, try this:

1. On your Windows (C:) drive, go to ProgramData\Intuit Canada\tt2020
2. Locate the TTConfig.ini file and double-click to open it. A window opens.
3. Locate ICPContingency=0 , then change the 0 to a 1 and save your changes.
4. Launch TurboTax. A window with the message “An unexpected error occurred while activating the product” appears.
5. Click on the Activate Outside button. The activation window will open in your default browser (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc.).
6. Enter your 16-digit license code to activate the TurboTax software (make sure you’re using the license code provided for TurboTax CD/download edition)
7. A window will pop up with the message “Looks like you have activated your product”

In my case I found that the "ICPContingency=0" line didn't exist at all and I had to enter it using the "1".  When I saved that and restarted Turbo Tax I got the activation screen.