Skip to main content
To develop and test integrations with Conductor, you need your own QuickBooks Desktop instance to send and receive data. This guide shows you how to set up a QuickBooks Desktop test environment by creating a virtual Windows instance and installing the QuickBooks Desktop free trial. Once set up, you can connect to this QuickBooks Desktop test instance from your local development environment via Conductor.
Also important: This guide may be outdated as AWS WorkSpaces. Alternatively, check out this guide or asking an LLM (like ChatGPT) for different approaches to setting up a Windows instance with QuickBooks Desktop installed.

​
1. Set up a virtual Windows environment

Either select the directory in the list or click Create a new Directory if there are none:
Add yourself as a user with your email address:
Select the bundle Standard with Windows 10 (Server 2019 based) (PCoIP):
Select AlwaysOn:
Skip the Customization step, then review the final page and click the button Create in the bottom-right corner:
After 20-30 minutes, look for an email from Amazon WorkSpaces with a link to set a password.
Download Amazon WorkSpaces on your local computer:
brew install amazon-workspaces
Open the WorkSpaces app, enter the registration key from the email, and sign in using the username and password you set via the reset link in the email. You must enter this password every time you open WorkSpaces, so best to save it to your local password manager.
After it loads, you will see your new Windows desktop instance!

​
2. Disable IE Enhanced Security Configuration

By default, you will see the following warning whenever you open QuickBooks Desktop. If you do not resolve this issue, this warning will freeze QuickBooks Desktop whenever the QuickBooks Web Connector opens QuickBooks Desktop when it is closed. Windows error - Internet security levels are set too high To prevent this error, follow these steps:
Search for and open Server Manager:
Choose Local Server from the left navigation pane:
For IE Enhanced Security Configuration, click the button that says On:
For Administrators, select Off. For Users, select Off. Choose OK. Then you are done!

​
3. Install QuickBooks Desktop

From the Windows instance, open Firefox and download the QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise trial: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/new-subscriptions/download-a-trial-of-quickbooks-desktop/00/185974
Navigate to the “Downloads” directory in the Windows File Explorer, and launch the application named QuickBooksEnterprise23Trial.exe. Then, walk through the installation.
After that installation finishes, another installer should launch automatically. Walk through that installer, too. This can take 20-30 minutes to finish.
Next, the following window will appear. Select the variant QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise General Business:
Click “I want to see a Sample company file”, which will provide a mock dataset for you to use with QuickBooks Desktop. If this option does not work, which sometimes happens, then click “I’m ready to create my own company file” to create a new, empty company file.
If prompted, sign in to your Intuit developer account in QuickBooks Desktop. If you do not have one, you can create account here.
When you are done, you will see the QuickBooks Desktop interface:
At some point, QuickBooks Desktop might ask you to create a password. Conductor will not ask for this password; it is internal to QuickBooks Desktop.
The trial installation will work for 30 days, after which you will need a developer (NFR) license, which you can get for free by following our guide. After completing that guide, you can continue to use the trial version while you wait for your NFR license to arrive.

​
4. Connect Conductor to your QuickBooks Desktop instance

Now that you have your own QuickBooks Desktop test instance, you can return to the Quickstart guide to connect it to Conductor. Don’t worry; this part is much easier.
⌘I