What is hell is intuit doing telling me I have to upgrade to Win 11, I don't want that POS, they said it's for security, That's OK, i'll take my chances with Win 10.

[Jay_H]

Just confirmed that H&R Block 2025 will support Windows 10, and will not discontinue Windows 10 support any time soon.

[VolvoGirl]

@Jay_H   How did you confirm it?  Do you have a link?  Because I think  you need to ask for 2026 not 2025.  It looks like HRB calls the program by the year you file in, not the tax return year.  Like this article says 2025 will be available in Nov 2024...2024.

https://www.hrblock.com/tax-center/support/software/software-tax-filing/before-filing-software-retur... 

[vetz76]

And you can import your TT data: https://www.hrblock.com/tax-center/support/online/technical-issues-online/deluxe-import-issues-from-...

[vetz76]

As of today it looks like TT is staying with their misguided decision not to run TT on WIN 10 machines.

Bunch of dumb asses.

[vetz76]

Well, I just got a free continuation of Microsoft security updates till Oct. 2026, so is TT going to still force us to Win 11 or back down since anyone can get the continued security updates?

[Mike9241]

as of now yes you'll be forced to upgrade to w11 unless you use online. No one knows if Turbotax will change its mind but considering 1) how late in the year it is and there is much coding that needs to be done due to tax law changes and 2) Turbotax would have thoroughly analyzed what it would lose in net income from desktop customers who wouldn't upgrade or use online (switch to a competitor's product compatible with w10 or so)  vs what it would make up from those that would switch to the higher priced online, and concluded bye-bye to those that wouldn't switch. or upgrade. 

there are ways to keep w10 and upgrade a non-compliant computer. 

1) dual boot (both OS present on separate drives or partitions but only one OS can be used at a time or

2) crate a virtual machine both OSs work at the same time because cores and memory a specially allocated to each OS

i did 1) tried 2) but it consistently failed even tried three different VM apps

I have no guarantee the TT2025 will install on the W11 drive 

[BobRay]

I very much doubt it. I think they really want to drive people to the online version. Having to support two different versions of an app is a huge pain in the ass even for fairly simple apps (which TT is definitely not).

[JohnQT]

A few minutes ago I used the New Virtual Machine wizard in Oracle VirtualBox to create a brand new Windows 11 Home Edition VM.  All I had to do was supply a password for the default user account and a Setup key for that edition of Windows 11.  The wizard automatically created a VM with two CPUs and 4 GB of RAM, including a virtual EFI-style BIOS and virtual TPM chip.  It took about 10 minutes from start to finish, including automatically signing into Windows and opening that fancy new Start menu (see screenshot below).

I still plan to try and outsmart the TurboTax installer so that I can continue to keep running TT in my current Windows 10 VM.  But if that turns out to be too difficult then I will either do an in-place upgrade of that VM to Windows 11, or just let VirtualBox create another VM like this one.  In the meantime I'm going to delete this VM as there is simply too much unnecessary baggage with the regular Windows consumer editions.  If Windows 11 become unavoidable then I'll create a VM running an Enterprise or Education edition instead.

[JohnQT]

P.S. @Mike9241 if you or anyone else actually goes the route of a physical dual-boot setup then there should be absolutely no reason why TurboTax for TY2025 wouldn't install into the booted Windows 11 OS.  If for some reason TT Setup refuses to do that then at that point it would be time to just jump ship completely off TurboTax and onto another product (with hopefully a competent engineering and marketing team).

[Mike9241]

@JohnQT to install the W11 (dual boot mode) on a completely noncompliant computer the workaround was to use an app that hacked the registry regarding the use of secure boot, the presence of tpm 2.0 and a compliant cpu.  whether Turbotax can or will add code to verify that the computer is indeed W11 compliant is unknown.  the other problem is that i have many apps, some of which the vendor is no longer around for download or I no longer have the CD, so they cannot be added to the w11 drive. as i mentioned I tried different apps to try to create a VM so dual boot would not be necessary, but every method failed.  

I suspect that sooner or later other apps will require w11 so I think this may be a temporary fix. 

[vetz76]

I was able to get the MS Extended Security service for Win 10 for free, so is TT going to still push the requirement of Win 11?  That was their reasoning, that MS would no longer providing security updates, well, that's obviously not true, you can them for another year.  So, TT, what's the problem?

[Mike9241]

@vetz76 no telling if Turbotax 2025 will install on w10 even with ESS.

theW11 requirements as far as can be determined are only for desktop users. w10 should still work with online (cross your fingers)

your options if you use desktop 

1) upgrade

2) find a different desktop app that still works with w10 (some are pricey). may be a temporary workaround because they too may in future years require w11 or later

3) switch to online

4) create a virtual machine or dual boot machine (dual boot painful because only one OS operates) in VM mode computer resources are allocated so both os's can run at the same time

[vetz76]

That's all well and good but totally unnecessary.  TT can build in their own security if they chose to.  Makes you think they're in MS' pocket!

[baldietax]

They didn't need to go to any further trouble just to keep TT alive on Win 10 for a year, for what would be a very small % of their user base and "low average revenue per return" users they don't care about.  They are also cleaning house of Desktop basic edition, ItsDeductible and dropping Mac OS 13 (as usual annually for unsupported MacOS version).  Desktop is a really a legacy business which is only 1% of their revenue and declining 5% annually.  Upgrade or don't, use Turbo or don't, Intuit frankly doesn't mind and will do fine either way, they are focused on growing the other 99% / $20bil of revenue.

[skramblr]

"They didn't need to go to any further trouble just to keep TT alive on Win 10 for a year, for what would be a very small % of their user base" -- Check your facts. Only ~50% of windows users are on Win11 and around 40% are on Win10. So that is a significant number of their userbase. What they are actually doing is pushing users to move to TurboTax online (they tell you that right in their messaging), but many of us don't want Intuit having our information on their servers waiting to be hacked and refuse. 

"TT can build in their own security if they chose to" -- I think there is a misconception here. Sure, Win11 uses TPM to secure the OS. But TPM has been used for decades on Servers (and some PCs) to secure data. Intuit probably made use of the required TPM hardware to help secure your data. Not an MS feature, a hardware feature provided by the motherboard. Intuit still builds their own security separately from the OS. Intuit is likely taking advantage of TPM , now that 100% of their users will have TPM hardware on their motherboards.  What will be interest is if those that install Win11 with the workaround of using Rufus, which has an option to remove the TPM 2.0 requirement from the installation media, will still work. TuboTax may still look for the TTM hardware to secure the data files and if not present, refuse to install.

What is TPM ? Think of it as a hardware key. Without TPM , your data may be protected by a password. But passwords can be hacked. With TPM your file is not only password protected, but encrypted by a hardware key that is present on your motherboard. If someone steals your data files, they will not be able to decrypt the files and read all your data.