Reader Inquiry: Turn Off QuickBooks Pop-up Messages

A reader sent us an email wanting to know how to stop pop-up messages in QuickBooks. Well, while it is not possible to step every pop-up message sent from Intuit in QuickBooks, you can stop many of them.

First, you need to turn off pop-up advertising messages—a preference setting in QuickBooks Desktop versions. Because the preference I am discussing is a personal (My) preference, you do not need to be the Company Administrator to perform this task.

• From the QuickBooks Menu, select Edit and choose Preferences
• Select General Preferences, then My Preferences
• You must place a check-mark in the Turn off pop-up messages for products and services preference to help prevent many of the messages you are getting
• Make certain to Save your preference change

Second, if you are the Company Administrator, you also can make another preference change to a Company Preference, but this must be done in Single-user Mode.

• From the QuickBooks Menu, select Edit and choose Preferences
• Select Service Connection, then Company Preferences (remember you must be logged in as Company Admin in Single-user Mode to do this)
• Uncheck the preference Allow background downloading of service messages
• Make certain to Save your preference change

By making these two preference changes, you can substantially reduce the number of pop-up messages you receive within QuickBooks Desktop. Intuit still canl push-out some messages, especially if you are using a QuickBooks Payroll Service, and there is no preference to turn-off those messages.