Turbo Tax Deluxe 2021 Won't Install

[tcamp22]

the actual fix is provided by ronaaronson below. The people I spoke to at Turbo Tax tried to be helpful, but did not know this fix. I think you can assume that this wont be the last time TT gets phone calls on this. It would be a good idea to provide this information to your front line call handlers. Tax season is coming and there is no need to spend hours upon hours needlessly trying fixes that wont work when there is an easy one readily available. 

I do want to thank the woman who spent so much time with me last night trying to fix this. Too bad she wasnt provided with such a fix from the developers. Might be good for Intuit to check their programming before its released. 

[tcamp22]

I really dont know what may have been imbedded as I really fool with this stuff and wouldnt know. This is what was in the values previously......%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp. I assume that is from the original Windows load. As it stands, I am just leaving everything as it is as I imagine that if I do load any new programs from a disk (which is probably unlikely) that it will work with the new variables. 

Again, thank you. 

[ronaaronson]

When you boot up you are greeted with a login screen and the name of your account. It is that name which may or may not have spaces in it. If you still don't know what I am talking about, if you bring up a command prompt (it it is not still open from before enter cmd in the search bar followed by the enter key. Then type the following followed by the enter key:

echo %USERPROFILE%

You will see something like:

C:\Users\some-directory-name

The question is whether that some-directory-name has one or more spaces in it, such as:

 C:\Users\John Doe

[ronaaronson]

I should have added that this last question about embedded spaces in your machine name applies to any and all of you out there who have encountered this difficulty and has had it resolved by reassigning TEMP and TMP, for I am trying to determine the common thread. My hypothesis is that it is an embedded space within the original TEMP variable name, which is is based on the machine name, that is causing the problem.

[Rip in Franklin]

If it helps, my %USERPROFILE% has two spaces in it. My machine name has no spaces in it.

[ronaaronson]

That helps! I should not have used the name "machine name" -- I meant login account name. I am in my dotage and must be bordering on senility . Thanks again.

Now I wonder if there is anyone with this problem who doesn't have at least one space in their login account name.

[the_darts]

My login name does have a space in it.  Once I changed the TEMP and TMP variables to c:\TEMP the install worked fine.  I did change the TEMP and TMP variables back to the originals after Turbo Tax ran fine.  I WILL be editing the variables if any other install suffers non install after extraction.

[ronaaronson]

My suggestion is that you not revert TEMP back to the way it was. When I had the same installation issues as everyone else I tried running the Window's Compatibility Troubleshooter (right-mouse click on an executable in an Explorer window end then click on Troubleshot Compatibility within the popup that ensues) and it failed. That problem also disappeared (coincidentally) after I changed TEMP and TMP. I also mentioned in an earlier post that Intuit wanted me to install a program that would allow them to look at my desktop but was unable to. I forget now the exact error code it output (at least it output an error code), but the usual cause of that error code is an invalid command line argument. This additional problem also got resolved with the change of environment variables. My guess is these programs are using these directory names in a context that requires that they be surrounded with double-quotes if they contain spaces but they are not doing that.

[canopy]

Thank you for this! My mother-in-law has been trying to install it for days and spent hours on the phone with Support. She had a CD, a digital download, Intuit sent another CD in case the first was corrupted, then finally she went to Best Buy and bought another one. Nothing worked. My husband went over to help and couldn't get it installed. I googled and found this solution - moving the extracted files to a new C:\TEMP folder didn't work until I instructed him to change the Environmental Variables. THAT is what worked for us.

She was ready to go buy a new computer and pay $200 for Geek Squad support.

[Carl]

If you start in safe mode, then you can delete c:\users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp and

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Temp. (this one may or may not be present already).

Then reboot the computer and it should recreate the Temp directory(s) with the correct access permissions.

[LarryTaxIdiot2021]

Completely agree.

[DiBurok]

thanks to everyone who posted detailed instructions on changing the environmental variables. Turbo Tax support was useless after spending one hour on the phone, nothing got done. Obviously they have no clue! How do we get this information to their tech support so they could help others?

[agbarnes]

I cannot even get to the point where the files extract.  When I double click the executable file I get a message that reads "This app can't run on your PC.  To find a version for your PC, check with the software publisher."  I have a PC running Windows 10 Home and purchased the Windows version of Turbotax 2021.  When I call for support I just get directed to help articles that don't help.  I have issues with this software every year, but never before even installing it.  I've updated everything on my computer and all applications (besides this one) work just fine.  Help!!

[Carl]

Run eventvwr.msc and see what you can find in the event viewer logs that may be of help in troubleshooting this.

[DiBurok]

That is what was happening to me as well. I followed the instructions for creating a C:\TEMP and C:\TMP (see previous postings) and changing the environment variables and it worked. Too bad Turbo Tax can't help with this!