Has anyone else had a problem being unable to extract

[xmasbaby0]

"Extract" what?  What are you trying to do?  No one can see your screen or your tax return.

[hguilmette]

My apologies for the lack of clarity.

I paid online for turbo-tax 2021. I received notice it was ready for download.

I selected to download to my pc and the download was a file called "windows_per_turbotax. Exe."

Opening my downloads folder, I doubl-clicked the downloaded file and

1)turbo tax installer opened &  said it was "extracting files."

2)user account control requested permission.  I selected "yes"  &  "extracting files" flasded, appeared to finish &  closed.

3) Nothing. Nothing at all. Task manager confirmed there was no program "in procces."

No screen to view.  No tax return in play. Help desk said it was a windows problem with "their extractor."

My question:  Has anyone else run into this problem? I'd certainly prefer to build on someone else's result rather than tackling Microsoft.

Thank you,  Harris

[VolvoGirl]

Did you turn off your Antivirus program?

How to install Turbo Tax on Windows

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/refund-status/help/how-do-i-install-the-turbotax-software-for-wind...

If you are having trouble downloading to Windows

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/installing/help/troubleshoot-turbotax-for-windows-download-issues/...

[VolvoGirl]

And does your computer have Window System Requirements

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/system-requirements/help/minimum-system-requirements-for-turbotax-...

Otherwise, Contact Customer Service
5am-5pm Pacific Time
Monday-Friday
https://support.turbotax.intuit.com/contact/

What is the Turbo Tax phone number
https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/using-turbotax/help/what-is-the-turbotax-phone-number/00/25632

[hguilmette]

Thank you for your reply.  I appreciate everyone's efforts.

Yes,  I did turn off my virus checker with no change to the scenario.  I even redownloded the TTax program twice to see if the problem was a bad download.

Yes, I did follow up with the help group.  They are the ones who told me it was a Microsoft problem. However,  I did try it on another pc, with the same result.

I will double check the Url's you sent.  Who knows.  Don't know why they can't send me the extracted file.  It's got to exist somewhere.

Thanks again,

Harris

[Mike9241]

is your operating system Windows 10S?

do you have administrator rights and have you tried to install as administrator (right-click on the downloaded file)?

"Don't know why they can't send me the extracted file"

It's not possible. that .exe file you downloaded is over 200,000KB and contains hundreds of compressed files. as part of the Microsoft Installer process, those files are uncompressed and placed in their proper folders. if the folders don't exist, they are created during the installation process. in addition the MS installer makes numerous entries in the Windows registry which are necessary for the program to function. without them, it would be like trying to drive a car uphill from point A to point B without an engine or means of locomotion.

[hguilmette · Accepted solution]

Hi Champ

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my query.  First, I'll answer your questions.

Yes, I did try to right click on the file and selected "run as administrator."  Did not do anything just as before.

My operating system is Windows 10 Home, not S.  Latest update is 21H1.  I have an Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8550U CPU @ 1.80GHz 1.99 GHz, and 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor with 16 GB of RAM (15.8 usable)

Even though Turbo-Tax told me it was a windows problem and they were unable to help, I figured someone, somewhere must have also had this problem and come up with a solution.  Obviously NOT.  Lucky me.

Anyway, for the benefit of the next person who does have this issue, I did discover a solution.  I  can't explain why it works, but it does:

I have two desktops set up for this PC, which I created when the PC was new.  One is my working desktop the other is an Administrative Desktop that I almost never use.  Even though "run as administrator" didn't work, I opened the second desktop, opened my download folder which is the same on both desktops, Double clicked the file and it installed just fine!

[BillsFan]

Yes...yes...yes!  I am having this same problem but none of these solutions worked for me.  I am frustrated and this is the only post or help I have seen describing the same problem.  

[MichelleLO]

If the solutions posted in this thread have not worked for you, please reach out to TurboTax Customer Support for assistance with your software.

What is the TurboTax phone number? 

@BillsFan

[biblebj]

Your experience is the same as mine.... after the Extracting Files processs ... nothing happend.  I called the support team and I feel like I knew more than the person trying to help me.  The support person could not help/solve my issue.  Have you figured out anything additional?

[biblebj]

Can you tell me what folder the files were "supposed" to extract to?

[MarilynG1]

If you are installing TurboTax Desktop, click this link for instructions for a Failed to Extract error.

Here's more help info on Installing TurboTax. 

In Windows the default location is the My Documents\TurboTax folder for extracted files. 

[BillsFan]

@biblebj Yes I did. I was able to run it on my husband’s laptop but not mine. After much research, my laptop is too “old” at 4 years out.  It doesn’t meet the requirements to run it.  It’s too old to upgrade to windows 11 even. I had to use a thumb drive to down load 2020 taxes to my husband’s laptop so it would pull last years info and upload to 2021. I guess I need a newer laptop to use turbo tax. Not happy. I could understand if it was 10 years old but I bought it in 2018. 

[jimb508]

What worked for me is to create another administrator user.  Simply "run as administrator" didn't work on my original user account.    Then go to that initial users downloads and run that install file.