Software Woes

Rants, tips and tricks



Thursday, July 31, 2014



Quicken Home Inventory on Mac OSX

Summary: Load your QHI database into Mac OSX application.

Many of my friends are switching from Windows to Mac and only problem is some Windows application that does not run on Mac. So you have to run dual-boot via bootcamp, or run Windows in Parallels or other virtual machine software.

One of such programs is Quicken Home Inventory Manager. If this is the one holding you back, I've got great news: you can now load your QHIM database into Mac computer.

For some time I have been writing about Attic Manager, a program that is able to load Quicken Home Inventory and Quicken Home Inventory Manager (standalone) databases with all the items, locations, and other data. It worked on 32bit and 64bit Windows and now there is a brand new version for Mac OSX.

It was tested on OS 10.9 Mavericks and it works just like the Windows version. You can load .IDB files directly on Mac, you don't even need Windows, it can load the database file directly.

If you have .QHI or .MDF database, you need to convert it into Attic Manager .FBK format on a Windows computer first and then use the Restore option on Mac to transfer the database.

If you have some older MacOS before Maverick, it's best to download the trial version before testing. To get the Attic Manager, go here:

http://guacosoft.com/attic



Friday, June 13, 2014



Quicken Home Inventory on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1

If you have an old Quicken Home Inventory Manager or Quicken Classic and just got a new computer with Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, I have good news for you.

A program called Attic Manager can load all three Quicken database formats (IDB, QHI, MDF) on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 directly without even having Quicken installed on the computer.

And it works on both 32bit and 64bit versions of Windows. Yes, that's correct, if you have Windows 8.1 64bit and cannot load your inventory database, just install Attic Manager by GuacoSoft.

If you have IDB or QHI file, it loads automatically in seconds.

If you have MDF file from Quicken Home Inventory Standalone, you will need to install some additional software from Microsoft. No big deal really, GuacoSoft has just updated their documentation to include instructions how to do it, with screenshots.

It nice to see that this home inventory software is fully supported and still in development in 2014, seven years after it's first release. I guess small software studios have more motivation to be commited to their clients.



Sunday, September 29, 2013



Another mention of Quicken Home Inventory and Attic Manager

I just found this article today:

http://quickenhomeinventoryreview.wordpress.com/

Looks like I'm not the only one.



Friday, January 13, 2012



Attic Manager can now import QHI, MDF and IDB files from QHIM

A new version of Attic Manager is released, version 3.00. This version is able to load all formats of Quicken Home Inventory Manager database: MDF, QHI and IDB. Attic Manager works on all versions of Windows, including Windows 7 and 64-bit versions as well.

http://www.guacosoft.com/attic



Sunday, December 11, 2011



Load Quicken Home Inventory Manager files on 64 bit Windows

I wrote earlier about Attic Manager, a program that is able to load QHIM files so that you can keep using your home inventory on 64-bit Windows 7 (and Vista). Apparently, Intuit has decided to cut further support for this line of products, and since there is not way to export data, you would need to enter all data manually into a new product. Except for Attic Manager, which is the only product on the market that is able to import data from Quicken database.

Recently, a new version of Attic Manager has been released. Version 2.50 supports loading from both .MDF and .QHI files. If you have .IDB file from Quicken Deluxe, it can also be converted to .MDF format before importing. New import of files with .QHI extension works even on 64 bit computers where Quicken Home Inventory is not installed.

Beside this compatibility with more operating systems (Attic runs on Linux too), Attic Manager has other advantages: it's much faster, even if you have thousands of items in database it does not slow down. And it stores item pictures in full quality. This makes it much easier to backup and copy the database around, since everything is stored in a single file.



Wednesday, October 26, 2011



Quicken Home Inventory on Windows 7

Like many others, I have learned about the problem of running QHI on Windows 7. It seems that Intuit has given up on users for this little program. It wasn't anything special after all, but it did the job. I was looking for alternative that would be able to load Quicken data, so that I don't have to type it all in again.

And here it is, it's called Attic Manager. It can import data directly from QHI.MDF backup file. All locations, categories, items and even pictures. Import can be done on machine where Quicken Home Inventory or Quicken Classic is installed, OR even on computer that does not support QHI. This page explains how to import it on Windows 7.

http://www.guacosoft.com/qhi

This means that you can even migrate to 64bit Windows 7 or some Linux distribution and keep all your data.



Friday, September 25, 2009



Moving to a new domain

Further posts will go to my new blog at www.BackwardCompatible.net