TurboTax 2013 installation Error: ".NET Framework Verification Tool can't be found"
//Normally I don't write this kind of blog posts but I decided to do it because I was so frustrated.
It is tax season again. I am eager to get some money back so I bought TurboTax 2013 Premier in Jan. However I couldn't install it. The error is ".NET Framework Verification Tool can't be found". I did a search and found a few links. I tried all the popular links and none of them worked. I even uninstalled .net frameworks and reinstalled them. I also tried the blog suggested by InTuit. I tried it for a couple of hours but the error still persisted. I almost gave up. But as a software engineer I wanted to figure out what was going on. I thought about using the tool Orca to modify the setup files ( .msi). Before that I started to explore the files on the CD and it turned out that the solution is super simple. I don't even need to use Orca.
The solution is executing the file "TurboTax 2013\TurboTax 2013 Installer.exe" directly and it will skip the annoying verification step. I believe that this is a bug on Turbo Tax 2013 and I am disappointed Intuit didn't fix it or even didn't provide a solution for it.
Update: looks like that this solution applies to TurboTax 2014 and 2015 as well.
The links I tried but none of them worked for me.
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1900095-troubleshooting-problems-with-the-microsoft-net-framework
https://blog.crosbydrive.com/?p=281
Comments
Anonymous
February 12, 2014
The comment has been removedAnonymous
February 14, 2014
I purchased turbo tax premier 2013 from staples and could not install it on my machine which has system 8OS. I returned it for a replacement and could not install it on my machine after many hours of trying with no results I purchased an additional turbo tax premier 2013 from Office Depot. could not install it on my machine. thAnonymous
February 14, 2014
sorry to hear that Ben. Did you try my approach? btw normally getting replacement on CDs/DVDs for such kind of issues won't work.Anonymous
February 14, 2014
Lori I am sorry to hear your story and I completely understood your frustration. I am disappointed that Microsoft support didn't give you useful suggestion. As a developer (full disclaimer. I am working for Microsoft) I think that it would be better if you paid intuit to look into the issue first. Let me explain why. The majority of the windows updates are security patches which fix security holes and may change internal interfaces/functionalities. All the applications on Windows should use only public APIs/features and if they don't a security patch might cause it not working. I can't assert that turbotax uses not public APIs/features but it is possible. In this particular case did you find other applications not working? I tried all the steps provided by Intuit and verified the .net frameworks are properly installed and all other applications are working. But still turbo tax just couldn't be installed. So intuit should investigate first and if they prove that it is a bug on windows they should report this bug to Microsoft to fix. Meanwhile they need to come out with a working solution and there has to be other way around. The solution they are using in the setup package is probably not reliable. I happened to work around the setup issue and after installation it is working fine on my machine. if there is any issue with windows or .net why is it working at all? Anyway there are hundreds of thousands of applications running on windows a general guidance for any application issue is investigating the application first. I saw many irresponsible companies producing so-so softwares.Anonymous
April 06, 2014
Thanks for this. installed TT Installer directly from the Turbo Tax Folder, instead of running Setup and it installed perfectly.Anonymous
January 25, 2015
Thanks for this post; I was here pulling my hair out trying to install TT2014. You just saved the day!!!Anonymous
January 26, 2015
Perfect.. works to install TT 2014 state return also. Thanks!Anonymous
February 02, 2015
The state doesn't work right though and Intuit sends the state exe and it fails with the same .net message. A year and they still have this bug? Shame on them....Anonymous
February 23, 2015
I am having problems with getting out of state tax returns that I have a download for. The ".NET 4.0 Framework Verification Tool can't be found" error pops up and I can't download them. Should I uninstall Turbo Tax 2014 Home and Business and reinstall it? I can run it perfectly besides the out of state returns that I do for my friends. If you could help that would be great. Thanks!Anonymous
March 23, 2015
I have downloaded TT Premier 14 from Amazon and just have an exe file. How do I access the installer.exe directly as you mention in your post ? I have been fussing with this all day! Getting frozen on net framework error. Have uninstalled, cleaned up, reinstalled etc etc.... If you can let me know how to get around this i would be indebted!Anonymous
March 23, 2015
The comment has been removedAnonymous
March 24, 2015
Thanks. I was able to return the download and get a credit and ordered via CD via pony express. Hopefully that will work. Thanks for the reply !Anonymous
March 25, 2015
I ran into this issue with the download of the software and was able to get past it by: Open %APPDATA%LOCALTEMP run the installer *note the time when it started when it fails, look in the TEMP folder for a new folder matching the time, probably with a "ckz_" beginning, locate the Turbotax folder and inside is the "Turbotax2014installer" Running that should install the software without the checkAnonymous
April 02, 2015
Thank you running TurboTax 2013TurboTax 2013 Installer.exe directly worked for me after spending hour try to reinstall .netAnonymous
April 04, 2015
Awesome solution! Spent hours trying to resolve the Turbo Tax ".Net 4.0 Framework verification tool can't be found" issue when installing updates. Running the installer from the temp folder worked - apparently bypassing the framework check. It didn't re-install Turbo Tax, but installed just the updates. Just what I was looking for. THANK YOU!Anonymous
August 08, 2015
this is a real shame on intuit, didn't know this problem started since 2013 and now is August of 2015 still having the same issue wow. am going to ask for my money back from turbotaxAnonymous
January 26, 2016
Thank you! This worked perfectly - the problem is still there with the 2015 versionAnonymous
February 15, 2016
THANK YOU SO MUCH, Bryan F for your post on 25 Mar 2015 @ 1:57 PM. After hours and days trying to get the State download that Intuit sent me for TurboTax 2015 State (because the update wouldn't work and neither did the .NET Framework fixes or reinstallations), navigating to the %APPDATA%LocalTempckz_...TurboTax2015" directory and running "TurboTax 2015 Installer.exe" directly worked! This after spending hours on the phone with Intuit TT Customer Support who couldn't solve this. THANK YOU! (NOTE: To others trying this out, do not run the "setup.exe" file in the %APPDATA%LocalTempckz..." directory because that will give the same .NET error--you must navigate further into the "TurboTax2015" (or other tax year) folder and run the "TurboTax 2015 Installer.exe" file there.)Anonymous
June 02, 2016
The comment has been removed