Activating Money Plus Deluxe in Windows 10

Hi Andrew. I'm Greg, awarded MVP for eleven years, Volunteer Moderator, and Independent Advisor here to help you until this is resolved.

There's are workarounds to get it installed that might still work:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/use-microsoft-mo...

There's also information here about how Activation might work now that it's discontinued:
https://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-Money-Plus-...
https://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?...

However most who have inquired decided upon a replacement. Some good options are collected here:
https://www.thebalance.com/when-replacing-micro...
https://www.topbestalternatives.com/microsoft-m...

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask back any questions and keep me posted. If you'll wait to rate whether my post resolved your problem, I will keep working with you until it's resolved.

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Thanks, Greg, for the quick response. Having wasted hours already on this, I had already seen most of the links you suggested.

My problem is the activation, which is required for the program to work. Microsoft, however, no longer has the online activation for this product. This is infuriating. I have the product disc with the key that I paid for. I just want to make the program work on my new computer with Windows 10. All of my old Money data is with the Money 2005 program on my old Windows XP computer. 

So, is there a way to "activate" the program without the online Microsoft activation, which no longer exists?

I can try the "Sunset" version of the program, but I hate to go down that rabbit hole and waste more time.

Andrew, I gave you what I found for trying to Activate the program. Did you read over the suggestions given and try each one? This is why I was more thorough than anyone else anywhere would have been, so you'd have the best chance at resurrecting it. There are two separate articles giving activation workarounds. Did you try everything in each of those?

Greg,

Thanks very much for your help. Sorry to be slow to respond, but I had to step away from this for a few days.

I did go back through all of the links, particularly the two on activation. Since I had already installed the program, what I was hoping to find was a way around the no-longer-functioning activation to make what I already had work. The opinion of all in the online articles was that there was no trick to get around the activation and, therefore, I couldn’t do what I wanted to do.

The consensus advice was to download and install the Sunset version that Microsoft released when it was discontinuing support for the regular program. I did not want to have to do that, because doing so would mean dealing with a whole new program and all the issues that always seem to arise with such. The results of going this route, however, turned out much better than expected. Here is what I did and what happened:

First, I opened the already installed Money Plus Deluxe by clicking “no” to the activation box that first comes up. You get a warning that without activation the program is only good for two months. I was then able to get this new program version to convert and open the data file from my old version of Money 2006. So, I was back and running with the new program, but it said it would die in two months.

I next downloaded the Money Sunset version installation file from CNet, because it no longer seems to be available from Microsoft. The Microsoft links to things about Sunset no longer work. With Money Plus Deluxe already installed and temporarily working, I double clicked on the Sunset installation file and clicked through the few steps to install it. I expected to see a separate, second Money program installed with a new icon on the desktop. What I got was ……. nothing. Nothing happened – no new program seemed to be installed anywhere. The same icon for the previously installed Money Plus Deluxe was still on the desktop as before. Not knowing what else to do, I double-clicked this old Money icon just to see whether the installed Money Plus Deluxe still worked. It did, and my old data still automatically opened with it. The program still said “Money Plus Deluxe” at the top of the window, and nothing seemed to have changed. The ”Aha!” moment came when I clicked on “Help” on the top right and then on “About” to check the version, etc. Only then did I see the label “Sunset” in the program version name.

So, installing the Sunset version simply took the existing program and converted it to the Sunset version, so (hold your breath) I should be good to go from now on – a working version with all my old data.

All’s well that ends well. Thanks.