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[Fixed] GnuCash Portable - Printing Errors

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portot
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[Fixed] GnuCash Portable - Printing Errors

GnuCash 5.3 for Windows from gnucash.org on Windows 10 allows report and check printing. GnuCash Portable 5.3 for Windows on Windows 10 fails to print reports and checks on the same machine. GnuCash Portable 5.3 generates no visible message/error when attempting to print a check and nothing is listed in the Windows 10 printer management interface. When attempting to print a report with GnuCash Portable 5.3 I see a dialog with the GnuCash Portable 5.3 icon in the upper left corner and the message states "Error from StartDoc". Below "Error from StartDoc" is a Close button - nothing is listed in the Windows 10 printer management interface. Selected reports include "Transaction Report", "Asset Chart", and "Account Summary".

Are there any fixes for printing with GnuCash 5.3 Portable?
Are printing problems an issue with all versions of GnuCash Portable?
If printing works with some earlier versions of GnuCash Portable, what is the latest working version and is there a site where I can find older versions?

Thanks!

John T. Haller
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I tried it under both local and portable on my Windows 10 Pro 64-bit machine (current build) and I was able to print checks and reports to the "Microsoft Print to PDF" printer. It's good to test with that to make sure it's not an oddball driver issue.

I'd try a reboot, don't start any apps, start GnuCash Portable and then try to print to PDF to start with.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

portot
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"Microsoft Print to PDF" Interesting Results

Thanks so much for looking into this. I was using Windows 10 Home 64-bit current in an Oracle VirtualBox VM. "Microsoft Print to PDF" does generate check and report PDF files but they are invalid PDF files. Also, attempting to "Microsoft Print to PDF" a report generates the "Error from StartDoc" message. Trying to open the PDFs displays a "Format error: Not a PDF or corrupted." message.

I tried testing GnuCash Portable 5.3 on my host physical machine, Windows 10 Home 64-bit, with the same results.

Do you by chance have an archive of older versions of GnuCash Portable I might try?

Also do you have any forums/guides focused on converting apps like GnuCash to portable versions? I tried using 7Zip's "Extract Here" option to open GnuCash to see if I could run from a directory but received a "Cannot open file as archive" message.

Thanks so much.

John T. Haller
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Fixed in 5.3 Rev 2

This is fixed in 5.3 Rev 2. The Temp directory wasn't being created in Data for new installs or unused upgrades, only for upgrades after the app had been used.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

portot
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Fixed in 5.3 Rev 2 - Works on my VM as well.

Thank you so very much for looking into this and so very quickly posting a fix.

After almost 20 years of using QuickBooks Pro 2004 as a glorified check registry, I have finally given up on trying to get it to work in Windows 10. I had been using QuickBooks in Windows 8.1 but with MS no longer supporting Win 8.1 security concerns pushed me into looking at alternatives. Interestingly there are NOT a lot of open-source offline options which allow checks to be printed. From a security perspective I like to minimize the installation of any apps which require administrative access. PortableApps.com to the rescue! From everything I've seen from gnucash PortableApps.com chose a great app to "portablize". Thank you, thank you.

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