Location of Money file in Vista

I've just updated the http://money.mvps.org website this morning with a short article on Windows Vista and Microsoft Money - specifically the location of your file.

In previous versions of Windows, you could put your file anywhere. With Vista, you can't - you can find that the money file isn't saved between updates, or worse, deleted!

See FAQ Article 515.

Ultrasoft Moneylink for Microsoft Money Plus Released

Ultrasoft Moneylink is a program provided for free by Ultrasoft, which allows you to access your Microsoft Money data in Microsoft Excel.

Ultrasoft have recently released a version of this software for use with Microsoft Money Plus. You can find it on the Ultrasoft MoneyLink Download page

As usual, this will also be referenced from my Money downloads page (http://money.mvps.org/downloads/moneylink/default.aspx)

Aug 17 MSN Money site update

The MSN Money Network Status page is showing an update scheduled for August 17th

Changes include:

• Update to the Deluxe (Toolbox) version of the Portfolio for Windows Vista users only. This update will allow you to run it without having to add moneycentral to your Trusted Sites list.
• Improved data quality due to changes in data source and improved data quality monitoring
• Improved performance with My Accounts
• Improvements to the Basic Charts (not the Toolbox version).
  For example: http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/charts/chartdl.aspx?iax=1&Symbol=MSFT (note that you won't see the changes until after the 17th)

Ultrasoft Money for Windows Mobile

Ultrasoft have now released Ultrasoft Money for Windows Mobile.

You can download a preview copy from their website at http://www.ultrasoft.com/Money/WindowsMobile.

Ultrasoft Money for Windows Mobile supports Microsoft Money 2002 to 2007 and Microsoft Money Plus. It does not support earlier versions of Microsoft Money.

The software has been extensively tested with the U.S. editions of Microsoft Money. It has also been tested with the U.K. and Canadian editions.

Note: Ultrasoft Money does not support Microsoft Money Essentials Edition at this time.

New articles on money.mvps.org site

I had a major day of putting up new information on the main FAQ site yesterday, which included the following new articles:

• Bills Insight - Article 511
• Spending Insight - Article 510
• Known bug fixes in Microsoft Money Plus (2008) - Article 509
• Currencies in Microsoft Money Plus (2008) - Article 508
• Default Categories in the US 2008 (Money Plus) Versions - Article 507
• Special Offers for Microsoft Money Plus 2008 - Article 506
• Cash Flow Insight - Article 505
• Linking from transactions to external documents or images - Article 504
• Activation in Microsoft Money Plus 2008 - Article 502

It is anticipated that article 510 (known bug fixes) will be expanded as more are discovered.

Certain articles I always produce for each new version, such as the list of default categories and currencies.

Money Plus (2008) Insights

Now that the trial versions of Microsoft Money Plus have been released, more information on the product can be discovered.

Insights
One of the newest items is what could be considered the re-introduction of Money Express, but under the guise of 'Insights'.

Insights provide you with the ability to see information about bills, spending and cash flow from outside of the program. There are three insights in the program, and a brief summary can be see in the articles below

• Cash Flow Insight
• Spending Insight
• Bills Insight

Insights do not require you to have Money running, as the program uses your Money file directly. It lives in the taskbar on the Windows screen, highlighting you to alerts as required.

Options within these insights are limited. They are designed to provide pertinent data to allow you to go into the Money file if something needs to be done.

When some of the MVPs were in Redmond earlier in the year, we did see some of the prototype work here, and it is good to see that some of the things we saw made it into the program.

Trial versions of Microsoft Money Plus (2008)

The trial versions of Microsoft Money Plus (2008) are now available.

This year, there are three trials:

• Home and Business
• Deluxe
• Essentials

All of them are valid for 60 days.

As usual with trial versions, any data created in them cannot be used in previous versions of Microsoft Money. Usage starts from the first time you open up the product and ends 60 days later.

If you later decide to purchase Money (and it would be appreciated if you did so through an Amazon link on this blog or the main website of mine), you will be able to open up any trial file you created.

The downloads are listed on my downloads page

Update - 9th August 2007

The links changed, and so the trials page is wrong (as is the Microsoft Money US site too). The new links will go live on the FAQ site shortly, but they are:

• Microsoft Money Plus Essentials Trial
• Microsoft Money Plus Deluxe Trial
• Microsoft Money Plus Home and Business Trial

Thanks to an anonymous poster informing me

Change in UK 2005 version expiration?

In recent weeks, the UK product page for Microsoft Money which can be found here was changed to indicate a new date for the expiration of online services.

The date quoted at the bottom of that page is now 31st December 2009 - which is just over 2 more years worth of service.

This will mean that updates continue to work until that date - definitely for new users, but potentially for existing users too.

The linked internet based services policy has not been updated at the time of writing this comment.

Box shots of Money Plus 2008

Click on the box shots for larger images.

Microsoft Money Plus Home and Business 2008

Microsoft Money Plus Premium 2008

Microsoft Money Plus Deluxe 2008