QuickBooks Desktop Crashing after Payroll Update Error

Earlier today, my phone started ringing, and my cellular phone texts started dinging with messages about users QuickBooks Desktop crashing when they attempted to run QuickBooks Desktop Payroll. 

I suspect that thousands of QuickBooks Desktop users were contacting Intuit Customer Support via their support phone number(s) and the online chat which reported 'chat unavailable.'

The culprit, as reported by Intuit several hours later, was a corruption that occurred when attempting to install payroll tax table update 22601 in Multi-user mode. When attempting to run Payroll within QuickBooks Desktop, users would be confronted with the 'Unrecoverable Error' depicted in the headline image of this article.

After running QuickBooks Update, Payroll Update, and Windows repair of QuickBooks, I decided to start the process over. These are the steps that I took that permitted Payroll to be processed in Single-user mode:

1. Log in to QuickBooks Desktop as the Admin user.
2. Switch QuickBooks Desktop to Single-user Mode.
3. Perform a 'complete' Payroll Update.
4. After the payroll update completes, close QuickBooks.
5. Reboot your computer.
6. After the computer has been successfully rebooted, Open QuickBooks Desktop.
7. Log in to QuickBooks as the Admin user.
8. Switch QuickBooks Desktop to Single-user Mode (if it is in Multi-user mode).
9. Begin either a 'scheduled' or 'unscheduled' Payroll.
10. QuickBooks opens the Payroll data entry window normally and allows the user to perform payroll in a typical fashion, with the exception that the user must be in Single-user Mode.

Remember, this is a 'temporary fix' only. Intuit has subsequently reported that they've "identified the 'source of the problem and are working to resolve the issue." Hopefully, after applying a patch, update, or problem-resolution for this issue, users will be able to resume processing QuickBooks Desktop Payroll within QuickBooks Desktop normally in Multi-user mode.  Until then, I suggest that you try my '10-step temporary fix' outlined above.