Run the TurboTax installer until the error dialog pops up. Click the close button since you can't go any further. Now press WinKey-R and type %TEMP% to go to the temporary folder. Copy the ckz_XXXX folder to the desktop. Select the Setup.exe file and press CTRL-C then CTRL-V to make a copy/backup.
Now use radare as follows:
Command | Description |
---|---|
r2 -A -w SetUp.exe | analyze and allow writing (thanks to @SureshotM6) |
axt str.CurrentVersion | look for references to this string |
s fcn.0041cc60 | seek to the function's location that was found in the previous command |
VV | Use visual mode |
p | optionally show addresses |
x | jump to xref |
l | seek to ref/xref |
( | reverse the opcode |
exit from visual mode | |
q | quit radare |
Now you can click on "Setup.exe" and install without error. (Note that the Verified publisher says "unknown" even though we only changed one byte.)
Paste these commands into a regular terminal window:
cd %TEMP%
cd ckz_XXXX
powershell
Now paste these command into a powershell window:
$bytes = [System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes("Setup.exe")
$offset = 120746
$bytes[$offset] = 0x75
[System.IO.File]::WriteAllBytes("Setup.exe", $bytes)
exit
Open the Setup.exe file and at offset 0x0001d7aa change the 74 to 75. Save it and you are done. Remember this offset only works with the version of TurboTax Deluxe mentioned above. If you have another version, follow the radare instructions above to find the right offset.
DISCLAIMER: This is for educational purposes only. Use TurboTax in Windows 7 at you own risk. It most likely will work just fine, but Intuit doesn't want to support older versions of Windows.
Thanks for your reply. I just went through the thread from last year that you linked to. Yes, it's the exact same problem I encountered.
I was in the same boat as you. I spent hours on it including 2 of the fixes recommended by TT here. I got nowhere with that so I ultimately had to finish the return using a drive with Win 8.1. I did not try the final recommendation of starting windows with selective startup and running the TTStateCleanup at that point. Maybe that will work. I'll give it a shot and report back.
Also, a user at the end of the thread that you linked to said he had success if he downloaded the state before entering any federal info. I attempted to do that after uninstalling then reinstalling TT. However, during the installation, TT downloaded the state automatically. Clearly it knew which state from the previous installation. It appears that the uninstaller is not very thorough. Is there a way to COMPLETELY remove TT?
Thanks