Quickbooks 2008 Not Loading, Shows Loading Screen for a moment then disappears

I wake up Monday, expecting it to be like any other. I mosey around for a little while, get a few computers fixed that I have been waiting on software and parts for, pay a few bills, and get ready to start my work day. The prior Friday, I had spoken briefly with a customer about her Quickbooks acting funny when she was trying to start it. This was just the start.. little did I know I would get bombarded with Quickbook issues almost all day! I am a mobile computer technician and support many local businesses, so when something doesn’t work, I’m getting a call to get over there and fix it asap.

I make my way over to my first (and last, I thought) onsite appointment of the day. I get there and am confronted with a computer that has three different versions of Quickbooks installed on it. 2005, 2007, and 2008 are all listed in the control panel add/remove programs dialog. To begin, I try running 2008. It pops up the loading screen, waits there for about 30 seconds or so, then disappears entirely.. it was like I hadn’t even clicked it. No error, no alert, nothing.

Solution:

1. Uninstall .Net using the Microsoft .Net Cleaner Utility. You can download it here.

2. Download and install the latest .Net Redistributable Package. I installed .Net 2.0, available here.

3. Download and install the latest Quickbooks Update Patch, available here.

4. Reboot, and enjoy your working version of Quickbooks 2008!