How to Start Fresh in Quicken
By Lori Kaufman
Quicken helps you manage your personal, as well as your business, finances. The program stores the data in a data file on your hard disk and is able to use it even if you reinstall the program. If you want to start fresh in Quicken, you have to options: delete the data file or rename the data file. Deleting the data file erases all your old data, while renaming the data file forces Quicken to create a new file. Renaming the file is a better option because it enables you to start fresh and also keep your old data as a backup.
Step 1
Launch Quicken, click "File" and choose "Show This File on My Computer" to open the folder that contains the data file using the File Explorer. The file is selected automatically.
Step 2
Close Quicken because you can't change the name of the data file while Quicken is running.
Step 3
Right-click the data file and choose "Rename" from the context menu to edit the file and extension of the file.
Step 4
Select the extension of the data file and change it to something else, such as ".bak" for example.
Step 5
Press "Enter" and click "Yes" to change the file type. Launch Quicken to start fresh; the new user wizard opens like it did the first time you started the program.
Tips
- You can create a second data file by clicking "File" and choosing "New Quicken File" from the menu.
- The Quicken data file has a ".qdf" extension.
- To delete the data entirely, select the data file, if it's not already selected, press "Delete" and click "Yes."
Warnings
- Information in this article applies to Quicken Deluxe 2013. It may vary slightly or significantly with other versions or products.