====== QB Auto Update ======

For the last several years, Quickbooks regularly has problems turning off automatic upgrades. With single user systems installed on a workstation, this is not a problem. However, in a network environment (where each client must be upgraded at the same time), or on a Windows Terminal Server where the user may not have permission to restart the server, it is better for IT to perform this manually, on a schedule (monthly seems to be appropriate). A discussion from several years ago is located [[https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/other-questions/quickbooks-desktop-automatic-update-no-option-greyed-out/00/462657|on the Intuit discussion site]] 

If your QB install is in automatic update mode, and you can not turn it off (Help | Update Quickbooks Desktop), you can do this manually.

  - Close all copies of Intuit Quickbooks
  - go to C:\ProgramData\Intuit\NameOfQBInstall\Components\QBUpdate
    - NOTE: ProgramData (no space) does not show up in normal listings, so you must manually enter the path
    - **NameOfQBInstall** depends on the version of Quickbooks installed. An example would be //QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 24.0//. Recommend you go into //c:\ProgramData\Intuit// and see what is there.
  - Find the file qbchan.dat
    - Open with Notepad (right click, Open With)
    - About line 4, there is the entry <code>BackgroundEnabled=1</code>
    - Change the 1 to 0
    - Save the file
  - Open Quickbooks
  - Help | Update Quickbooks Desktop
  - Verify Automatic Updates is off

===== Update 2026-11-13 =====
When performing this task on QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 24.0, the Qbchan.dat file had multiple entries for background enabled. I changed them all to 0's (definitely after making a copy of the file) and will see what happens. 

There are also reports that the service **QBUpdateMonitorService** needs to be disabled, which I did. Again, this is still being tested.
  - Open Services (services.msc)
  - Find  **QBUpdateMonitorService**
  - Right click and select Properties
  - Stop the service
  - Set Startup to Disabled
  - Save your work


===== Other Solutions =====
For another solution, visit https://bigredconsulting.com/forced-quickbooks-patches/. In there, he disables the Quickbooks Download Folder. I'd assume you would disable it for anyone but a Systems Administrator. This solution has not been verified

===== Links =====

  * https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/other-questions/quickbooks-desktop-automatic-update-no-option-greyed-out/00/462657
  * https://bigredconsulting.com/forced-quickbooks-patches/