...w???ÿ wrote:
The only idiots are people buying something that is clearly
incompatible
with their needs and then complain about it.
Does the box clearly say in reasonable sized lettering that it is
Windows 11 only?
The boxed product(where available) and downloadable only purchase
method, the ad for purchasing(Costco or all other providers purchase
options - e.g. Sam's Club, Best Buy, Staples, Intuit - all specify
Windows 11 as a requirement for TTax 2025.
Again and again I must point out it's like buying spaghetti and only
finding out later that in the ingredients, there's no pasta involved.
"Carlos E.R." wrote:
Andy Burns wrote:In my case I use paid software, because it integrates with my business accounting software (so self-employment records are pulled into my
Presumably you are free to use alternate software?
Sure, but what purpose would have a developer to create it? No
business case :-)
It must have some advantage, like detecting what deductions you can
apply to pay less, like a professional tax accountant would do.
personal tax records)
...w???ÿ wrote:
The only idiots are people buying something that is clearly
incompatible
with their needs and then complain about it.
Does the box clearly say in reasonable sized lettering that it is
Windows 11 only?
The boxed product(where available) and downloadable only purchase
method, the ad for purchasing(Costco or all other providers purchase
options - e.g. Sam's Club, Best Buy, Staples, Intuit - all specify
Windows 11 as a requirement for TTax 2025.
Again and again I must point out it's like buying spaghetti and only
finding out later that in the ingredients, there's no pasta involved.
...w???ÿ wrote:You're welcome.
Char Jackson wrote on 1/28/2026 12:54 PM:
On Wed, 28 Jan 2026 04:33:08 -0500, Maria SophiaSimilar notification, two notices, Sept 2025, early Nov. 2025 that
<mariasophia@comprehension.com> wrote:
Yet again, Intuit blindsided loyal users, this time by requiring
Win11 for
the 25 tax year when the version of Windows was never previously an
issue.
I've been using Turbotax since 1984 and I wasn't blindsided.
Intuit sent out an email alerting me to this change on 8/21/2025 and a
second notice, mostly identical to the first, on 10/22/25. Plus, the
product listing on Amazon, where I usually buy mine, clearly said
Windows 11 required.
Win11 was required for 2025 editions.
Have purchased 'Deluxe' edition from Staples in past, Amazon was
cheaper this year - both sources' content for purchase indicated Win11
requirement.
Interesting. I believe both of you. Thanks for that useful information.
Everyone here knows me well so they know I would never create an online account to any marketing organization, least of all Intuit marketing,Apparently, you deviated from the 'gun' requirement<g>, using a
unless I am forced to at the point of a gun.
You all believe me because you know me well.
So I don't doubt they sent that email to the bogus registration address.
On 01/27/2026 19:32, Maria Sophia wrote:
Is anyone in the US ahead of me on this where we can both help everyone?
You DO know about IRS Free File, don't you? If your adjusted gross
income is less than $89K you can choose from several providers there to
file for nothing. Some of them may even handle your state return for
free as well. If you're so well off that you don't qualify for *that,* there are Free File Fillable Forms you can use to file your federal
return for free regardless of how much you make. The only catch there
is you have to prepare the return yourself. I'd go to www.irs.gov and
check it out if I were you.
On Tue, 27 Jan 2026 19:37:11 -0500, Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> wrote:
I bought TurboTax at Costco today for $55.99 - $11 = $44.99 + 0% tax.
At home I try to install it on Windows 10, and it says it won't load.
Apparently it needs Windows 11.
Why?
What on earth could TurboTax need that only Windows 11 can supply?
They did the same thing the last time MS dropped support for an OS (was
it 2016?). I was due for an upgrade anyway so I bought a win10 notebook.
I got this win11 notebook in 2025. Now, with rumors of win12 coming out,
I wonder if I'll get screwed as far as TT is concerned. I don't plan on buying a new notebook for another 5 or 6 years. I might have to look
into H&R Block at some point.
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2026-01-28 13:42, Dennis wrote:
On Tue, 27 Jan 2026 19:37:11 -0500, Maria Sophia
<mariasophia@comprehension.com> wrote:
I bought TurboTax at Costco today for $55.99 - $11 = $44.99 + 0% tax.
At home I try to install it on Windows 10, and it says it won't load.
Apparently it needs Windows 11.
Why?
What on earth could TurboTax need that only Windows 11 can supply?
They did the same thing the last time MS dropped support for an OS (was
it 2016?). I was due for an upgrade anyway so I bought a win10 notebook. >>>
I got this win11 notebook in 2025. Now, with rumors of win12 coming out, >>> I wonder if I'll get screwed as far as TT is concerned. I don't plan on
buying a new notebook for another 5 or 6 years. I might have to look
into H&R Block at some point.
If virtualization software like vmware runs in your W10 laptop, you
might install W11 (obtained cheap from Amazon) inside the virtual
machine. Or same thing with a Linux host.
Hi Carlos,
Thank you for that helpful suggestion of using a VM within Windows/Linux.
Since this is both a tax-related & Windows-related discussion of equal interest to both, I would like to clarify one parenthetical tidbit above: (obtained cheap from Amazon)
AFAIK, we can run Windows 11 in a Linux/MacOS/Windows VM for free, but it
is not fully licensed unless we activate it. Yet, we're allowed to install and use it unactivated with a watermark and a few cosmetic limitations, <https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/windows-11-free-or-cheap>
"You don't have to pay the full $139-$199 price for Windows. ÿYou can download and run Windows 11 for free without activation ÿif you can live with a desktop watermark, limited personalization ÿoptions, and no
support from Microsoft. If you do want all the features ÿof an activated version of Windows, you can buy a cheap activation key ÿfrom a third-
party site for $20-$25, and often even less if you can ÿfind a sale."
So that more fully covers the concept of (obtained cheap from Amazon).
Let's note though that we'd have to really love Intuit's marketing plan to
go to the trouble of a VM (especially on my older AMD/Nvidia hardware) just to compensate for what amounts to a bad decision by Intuit marketing.
...w¤?ñ?¤ wrote:
The email notices were just another courtesy. The requirement
available prior to completing the purchase(Win11 required) was clearly
specified.
ÿ - unfortunate for you and possibly others having the same
concern(maybe some of those exist in different forums or feedback
services/reviews - online, social media, etc.
Good luck if you choose to return it.
Thanks for all your help and that from the others because I was clueless yesterday when Intuit blindsided me, but now I think I'm on board.
In a way, I probably will thank Intuit Marketing for forcing me to look elsewhere, even as I was perfectly happy using their software until now.
I already bought H&R Block Premier with State for $42.50 on Amazon.
It's less than the TurboTax Premier but only by about $7.50.
Since state e-filing on TurboTax is effectively $15 (with the $10
discount), that gets eaten up by the H&R Block $19.95 state efile fee.
Effectively, they're about two bucks different, which is nothing.
I didn't even know all of this until Intuit forced me to go elsewhere.
As for Costco, in the USA, we don't worry about returning stuff.
Right now I'm concentrating on writing to the media and I need to find the address at Costco marketing to tell them to put up a big warning sign.
...w??? wrote:
Again and again I must point out it's like buying spaghetti and onlyThere are certainly will always be a subset group of people incapable
finding out later that in the ingredients, there's no pasta involved.
of purchasing something without understanding it's incumbent upon them
to make an informed decision.
ÿ - Your experience would seem to fall in that group's subset quantity.
When you find a box of spaghetti that doesn't provide required
labeling content of the ingredients for the spaghetti inside the
box(the content is almost always viewable via the clear window on the
box or clear package showing the spaghetti) feel free to post a picture.
Hi Winston,
I do thank you for the veiled compliment assuming I'm omnipotent.
But I must shyly defer to refute your compliment by saying I'm not.
I clearly said it never occurred to me that Intuit would be so hostile to
its loyal customers as to brazenly lie on their own web site about WHY they did this.
Did you miss that explanation? Do you need me to describe it again?
It's based mostly on the link from Intuit explaining their rationale that Herbert kindly produced yesterday for the team to ponder.
I'm tired of explaining the four places that Intuit lied in that rationale, but I hope you read those posts before you continue to "blame the victim".
You blaming me is like Apple blaming the users for "holding it wrong".
We can't know ahead of time that which are due only to poor design Winston.
Remember, Intuit's rationale is chock full of lies about Microsoft Support, which I'm sure works on the clueless, but we're all apprised of Win10 ESU.
Even if we weren't apprised of Windows 10 ESU (which Intuit claims doesn't exist for personal users), notice that the Business tax software works with windows 10, so it's not a supported version of Windows 10 that's the
reason.
The reason Intuit marketing is openly hostile to half their customer base
in the USA has more to do with their plan to upsell a "free" Premier online tool, which is obvious when you read the bottom half of Intuit's excuse.
This reminds me of Apple's battery gate, where nothing that came out of
Apple made sense because they were merely making up lies to back up a marketing move (for which Apple paid half a billion dollars for).
The fact remains:
TurboTax Deluxe would work just fine in Windows 10 with support.
Intuit doesn't even bother to check for the ESU support status.
And they allow business users to be on Windows 10 anyway.
Still without even bothering to check for the ESU support status.
And then, Intuit marketing openly lied about Microsoft's support position. After all that, Intuit marketing tried to upsell us on their online stuff.
I know all of that now, but I didn't know any of that yesterday.
It was only Intuit Marketing's hostile moves that made me even bother.
For you to claim all that should have been intuitive to me, is giving me
far more credit than I deserve, although I do appreciate your compliments.
If virtualization software like vmware runs in
your W10 laptop, you might install W11...
Yup. I'm always open as I say things the way they truly are.I have all those boxes too, and for the life of me I have no idea why I keep them.
Andy gave us all the link to the desktop version on Costco online:
<https://i.postimg.cc/Nfrz5Ggj/Costco-Online-Turbo-Tax.jpg>
I was saying this for Dennis (he is not happy about buying a new machine every five years),
because it is a way of running W11 in a machine that doesn't have supported hardware,
like no TPM. It will of course run slow.
And the hosting softwares are not always properly labeled.
One developer said "we leave the old OSes behind when
they go out of support, but we don't state anywhere whether
the software works or not". I think they do in fact know
it's a trap. (I had the same problem with this attitude,
around copies of Wireshark, where when you needed OS
version info, there was no hint which one was OK.)
I suppose it's just human nature to torture people
who aren't using "The New Shiny".
Paul
...w??? wrote:
Intuit requirements indicate:
"Software minimum system requirements
Product download, installation, and activation requires an Intuit
Account and internet connection.
Windows Download Products (Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business and Business)
ÿ NOTE: TurboTax Business is Windows Only
Operating Systems
*****************Windows 11 (64-bit)*********************"
While I physically bought the box at the warehouse, the box definitely
states that it won't work with Windows 10.
Note that the business version does work with Windows 10.
Note that Intuit doesn't check if you're on ESU support.Not sure why would expect them too or if they should.
Note that Intuit lied on their web site by saying ESU doesn't exist.See above...but if you have a link for that lie, feel free to post it.
Note that Intuit tries to push you toward their "premier" version, which:) Common marketing strategy, push/spin the higher cost, higher margin,
they will give you "for free" if you can't buy a new Win11 PC.
Note that the "solution" suggested by Intuit is to either buy a new PC orNot much different than the approach to run Win11 in a VM on
to run it in a VM but in a VM, which is so absurd as to defy a response.
That's part of the applicablity of it being incumbent upon all of us to determine the requirements and make our own choices.It's almost as if Intuit marketing begged us to look elsewhere, isn't it?
Half the world is still on Windows 10 (with full ESU support, mind you).See above, doesn't matter. ESU is security related.
Paul wrote on 1/30/2026 3:20 AM:
And the hosting softwares are not always properly labeled.
One developer said "we leave the old OSes behind when
they go out of support, but we don't state anywhere whether
the software works or not". I think they do in fact know
it's a trap. (I had the same problem with this attitude,
around copies of Wireshark, where when you needed OS
version info, there was no hint which one was OK.)
I suppose it's just human nature to torture people
who aren't using "The New Shiny".
ÿÿÿ Paul
From Wireshark documenatation
User Guide
2. Who should read this document?
The intended audience of this book is anyone using Wireshark.
User Manual
Chapter 1.2.1. Microsoft Windows
Wireshark should support any version of Windows that is still within its extended support lifetime. At the time of writing this includes Windows 11, 10, Server 2022, Server 2019, and Server 2016. It also requires the following:
The Universal C Runtime. This is included with Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019 and is installed automatically on earlier versions if Microsoft Windows Update is enabled. Otherwise you must install KB2999226 or KB3118401.
Any modern 64-bit Intel or Arm processor.
500 MB available RAM. Larger capture files require more RAM.
500 MB available disk space. Capture files require additional disk space.
Any modern display. 1280 ? 1024 or higher resolution is recommended. Wireshark will make use of HiDPI or Retina resolutions if available. Power users will find multiple monitors useful.
A supported network card for capturing
Ethernet. Any card supported by Windows should work. See the wiki pages on Ethernet capture and offloading for issues that may affect your environment.
802.11. See the Wireshark wiki page. Capturing raw 802.11 information may be difficult without special equipment.
Other media. See https://wiki.wireshark.org/CaptureSetup/NetworkMedia.
Older versions of Windows which are outside Microsoft?s extended lifecycle support window are no longer supported. It is often difficult or impossible to support these systems due to circumstances beyond our control, such as third party libraries on which we depend or due to necessary features that are only present in newer versions of Windows such as hardened security or memory management.
</qp>
Note the first line...
"Wireshark should support any version of Windows that is still within its extended support lifetime."
ÿ- it, in the same section it also states - "Older versions of Winodows which are Microsoft's extended support window are no longer supported."
That information, most likely, pre-dates the end of extended support for Windows 10...but to be fair, it does not state the current version or earlier will no longer function on Windows 10.
On Thu, 1/29/2026 3:56 PM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
I was saying this for Dennis (he is not happy about buying a new machine every five years),
because it is a way of running W11 in a machine that doesn't have supported hardware,
like no TPM. It will of course run slow.
I wish we had better benchmarks for "slowness", just so we could
identify factors that make it faster.
Linux host-to-guest file I/O can manage 600MB/sec inside a VM.
The Windows VMs seem to be lower than that, host-to-guest.
It can be hard to tell if paravirtualization is being used
when the hosting software has settings like "Default".
On both Linux host (TMPFS) and Windows host (OSFMount), I can
have a RAMDrive for the VM container to sit on. This does not
do anything for I/O particularly, but it reduces the seek time
to zero. It behaves more like an SSD, when all you own is a
single slow HDD. But you need a lot of RAM to do that. And
in the current RAMpocalypse I can't really advocate for this
any more. When a Windows Guest boots and scans the shit out of C:
you hardly notice.
At one time, virtual machine file I/O was down
around 1MB to 2MB/sec or so. And the graphics drew
so slowly, you could see individual pixels getting
painted row by row. To say it is slow today, it's
nothing compared to how it was in early days. We were
running x86 OS on top of a SPARC instruction set.
A modern VM could have unaccelerated graphics. The driver
is wrong or very wrong. The CPU takes up the slack (MESA
is doing some of the work via software path).
The Windows MBEC support can degrade performance on older
than 10th gen CPUs. 8th gen CPUs sorta work. 4th gen CPUs
some feature might be turned off.
One virtualization product won't allow more than 2 cores. Silly.
In a lot of these cases, there does not seem to be a lot of
traction to fix it. You can use "PCI Passthru" to have a
second GPU dedicated to the virtual machine, and then the
driver is no longer driving virtual graphics, it is
driving real graphics. The odds of that working are
pretty close to zero :-) Just the fact my new computers
don't have a PCI slot, rules out using my spare-dummy card
for graphics.
At some point, it's just better to say "screw it, I'm
going physical" instead of virtual. And just install
Windows 11 besides Windows 7, using Rufus for the boot
stick preparation, and using the "Custom" install option,
declare a 200GB partition and just slap it in.
I'm averaging around a day each for these little projects,
just to give some idea what sort of time allocation to expect.
You might have a dozen tabs open in your browser, with recipes
to "fix this or that". The AI can at least make you aware
of stuff you need to fix, even if the recipes aren't complete.
And Duckduckgo is turning out to be a better search than Google
plague search.
And where would I be if I didn't have two computers ?
You can't be hardware poor and expect a quick result.
Paul
On Fri, 1/30/2026 3:29 PM, ...w¤?ñ?¤ wrote:
User Manual
Chapter 1.2.1. Microsoft Windows
Wireshark should support any version of Windows that is still within its extended support lifetime. At the time of writing this includes Windows 11, 10, Server 2022, Server 2019, and Server 2016. It also requires the following:
Older versions of Windows which are outside Microsoft?s extended lifecycle support window are no longer supported. It is often difficult or impossible to support these systems due to circumstances beyond our control, such as third party libraries on which we depend or due to necessary features that are only present in newer versions of Windows such as hardened security or memory management.
</qp>
Note the first line...
"Wireshark should support any version of Windows that is still within its extended support lifetime."
ÿ- it, in the same section it also states - "Older versions of Winodows which are Microsoft's extended support window are no longer supported."
That information, most likely, pre-dates the end of extended support for Windows 10...but to be fair, it does not state the current version or earlier will no longer function on Windows 10.
Well, actually, at the time, I was on MacOSX 10.2 or 10.3 and absolutely no "Wireshark
versus MacOSX" information existed. I had to try them manually one at a time. Really :-/
On MacOSX, the versioning was "really sharp", and only a couple files would work,
and later releases might only work on 10.4 or whatever.
On 1/30/26 2:40 AM, Maria Sophia wrote:
Yup. I'm always open as I say things the way they truly are.I have all those boxes too, and for the life of me I have no idea why I
Andy gave us all the link to the desktop version on Costco online:
ÿ <https://i.postimg.cc/Nfrz5Ggj/Costco-Online-Turbo-Tax.jpg>
keep them.
I even have printed copies of the returns, now that means more.
Back to Alan's astute assessment, I agree that I save the old TurboTax CD's (and now the cardboard things) for reasons that I "might" need them.
But I never do.
However... if I were eve to be audited, I might need them... But I've survived 8 decades of life without ever getting audited.
...w??? wrote:
Half the world is still on Windows 10 (with full ESU support, mind you).ÿ See above, doesn't matter. ESU is security related.
Intuit's written justification is security related. Not functionality.
...w??? wrote:
It's a good question to ask, but it begs the question of what is in Windows 11 that I need, and the answer is nothing (as far as I can tell anyway).
:) Costco already has a warning sign...the offered product already
indicates Win11 is required.
It's like "muscle memory"... :)
We have to be clear here that I didn't even LOOK at the box I bought.
But it's also fair that I used "muscle memory" too.
| Sysop: | Tetrazocine |
|---|---|
| Location: | Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
| Users: | 15 |
| Nodes: | 8 (0 / 8) |
| Uptime: | 235:55:04 |
| Calls: | 207 |
| Files: | 21,502 |
| Messages: | 83,217 |
