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Setup hangs or freezes when downloading Lacerte from Web Downloads or downloading updates

SOLVED•by Intuit•2•Updated December 01, 2023

In rare cases the Setup program hangs or freezes when downloadingLacerte from Web Downloads or when downloading Lacerte Updates from within the program.

Before you start:

  • This article references default installation paths and uses YY to reference the tax year in 20YY format. C: will always indicate the local drive and X: will always indicate the network drive.

On occasion it appears to freeze, but is actually downloading your update. Here is a simple test to see if that is the case.

  1. Press CTRL+Shift+Esc at the same time to bring up the Windows Task Manager. (all three of these buttons can be found on the left side of the keyboard)
  2. In the Windows Task Manager select the Performance tab. Your  CPU Usage percentage is what we will be using for this test.
  3. Click the Options menu and check Always on Top.
  4. Click on your Start button and select All Programs.
  5. Find your Lacerte folder in your list.
  6. Double click on 20YY Lacerte Web Setup.
  7. Follow the prompts on screen and continue to hit next until we get to install. At this point make sure you can still see your Task Manager.
  8. Click the Install button in the loader to begin the installation.
    • In the event that the installation freezes during websetup, it will typically happen during the "checking file integrity" portion of setup. If it does, follow the steps provided below to clear the Temp folder.
  9. Watch your CPU Usage, more than likely it will hit 100% and stay there. If it does, give it about 5-6 minutes and see if the progress bar changes at any point. If it does then your system is downloading it just doesn't have enough resources to show you. Let the download continue and finish.
  10. If it doesn't download and it continues to stall without showing progress in 5-6 minutes, then cancel the setup and follow through with the rest of the article.

    If you are encountering this issue, first try the steps below:

    1. Close all programs and reboot your computer.
    2. After rebooting, do not attempt to open Lacerte.  Instead, download the program again using the Web Setup utility or from Web Downloads.
      • Web Setup: To download the program using Web Setup go to Start, All Programs, Lacerte, choose Lacerte Web Setup for the program you are wanting to update.
      • Web Downloads: To download the program from Web Downloads, see here and then select the program you want to update.

If problems continues, complete the steps in the sections below.  Retry the download after each series of steps.

  1. Close all applications.
  2. Delete the content of the your Windows Temp.
  3. Press the Windows + R key and press Enter.
  4. Type %temp% and press Enter.
  5. Press Ctrl+A on the keyboard to select all the files in your Temp folder.
  6. Once the files are highlighted, press the Delete key and confirm the deletion.
    • Some files in the Temp folder may be in use and cannot be deleted.  If you may see a message that some files are in use, click OK to close the message.
  7. Using Windows Explorer, browse to the Lacerte System File Path folder.  To find the System File Path location, open the Lacerte program and press F10 on your keyboard.  Scroll down and look for the System File Path.
    • Standalone users: The System File Path is usually located on the local drive. (i.e.  C:\Lacerte\19Tax)
    • Network users with a shared options folder:  Navigate to the network drive that stores the System File Path.  The path is usually [networkdrive]:\Lacerte\19Tax
  8. Right-click on the SetupYY (i.e. Setup19) folder and click Rename.
  9. Rename the folder to SetupYYold.  example: Setup19old
  10. Then download the Lacerte program after deleting the temp files and the Setup folder.
    • Download Lacerte using the Websetup.exe file on your computer, Click the Windows Start button, go to to Programs or All Programs > Lacerte > 20YY Lacerte Web Setup and follow the instructions on the screen. 
    • Download Lacerte directly from Web Downloads, see here and then select the program you want to download.

After upgrading to Internet Explorer 7 or 8, the time-out setting may be set to 30 seconds causing the the connection to time out. To change the time-out to a longer time period, follow the steps below to make the change in the Windows Registry:

This requires modification of the Windows Registry. Serious problems may occur if the registry is modified incorrectly. Intuit strongly recommends having an IT professional make these changes if you are not comfortable with editing the registry. It's also strongly recommended to make a backup of the registry before proceeding. See here for further instruction.

Steps to increase the Internet Explorer time-out setting:

  1. Exit all applications.
  2. Click the Windows Start button and choose Run.
    • For Vista/Win7, click the Windows logo button.
  3. In the Open (Search) field, type Regedit and then click OK.
  4. Using the folders on the left, browse to and select the following:
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet Settings
  5. In the right side pane, double-click an entry called ReceiveTimeout and change the value to 480000 (decimal).
    • If ReceiveTimeout does not exist, right-click in the right side panel, point to New and click DWORD Value. Name the new entry ReceiveTimeout and repeat step 5.
  6. Close the Registry Editor and restart the computer.
  7. Download the program using WebSetup or download from the Web Downloads website.
    • Download Lacerte using the Websetup.exe file on your computer, Click the Windows Start button, go to to Programs or All Programs > Lacerte > 20YY Lacerte Web Setup and follow the instructions on the screen.
    • Download Lacerte directly from Web Downloads, see here and then select the program you want to download.

If you continue to have a problem and you have a firewall or anti-virus software running, click the section below for information on allowing Lacerte to connect with the Intuit servers.

Firewalls (hardware or software applications) exist to prevent unauthorized access to a computer or network. They may also monitor or block data transmissions, which can interfere with Lacerte communications. Most firewall and anti-virus applications have an option to Allow or Trust applications but some may require specifying port numbers and IP addresses for successful communication. Please refer to the firewall or anti-virus manufacturer's instructions on how to configure your firewall.

For Lacerte communications, the following files should be configured to Allow or Trust in your firewall or real-time scanning anti-virus application.

File NameFile Location
wYYTax.exeC:\Lacerte\YYTax
wYYSetup.exeC:\Program Files\Common Files\Lacerte Shared
WebSetupYY.exeC:\Program Files\Common Files\Lacerte Shared

Some software based firewall applications will detect changes in the file version of the executable that have the Allow or Trust permission.  When a change occurs to one of these files, the firewall may no longer allow communications even though the executable setting is still set to Allow or Trust. This scenario may occur after installing an update to the Lacerte Tax program.  If the Lacerte Tax executable shows the Allow or Trust permission and the program still cannot communicate, try removing the Lacerte Tax executable file from the permission list and re-add it manually. This will update the allowed version in the software firewall application.

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