I DOWNLOADED Turbo Tax 2013 and it tries to open Matlab. However, it sends me each time to troubleshoot. I had a copy of Matlab on my hard drive from the University of Delaware but had not used it. I am a UD Professor.

I DOWNLOADED Turbo Tax 2013 and it tries to open Matlab. However, it sends me each time to troubleshoot. I had a copy of Matlab on my hard drive from the University of Delaware but had not used it. I am a UD Professor.

[Jan]

What is "Turbo Tax 2013" and how is it connected to Matlab? Many readers do not want to ask Google at first before they can understand your question. Who sends you when to which troubleshoot? Do you get an error message? Do you have a copy of the Matlab installation files on your hard disk or did you install Matlab? What is a "UD" professor and does this have a relation to the problem? Please ask more specifically to reduce the need for guessing.

[Star Strider]

Jan — It may tangentially relate to MATLAB, because some file name extensions may be common to both TurboTax and MATLAB. This could cause problems such as Professor Jungck is encountering.

‘TurboTax’ is a popular income-tax preparation software package. Income taxes in the U.S. are due on 15 April, or the Monday following if that day falls on a weekend.

[Jan]

@Star Strider: Thanks, you revealed the strange details.

[Star Strider]

My pleasure. ‘Strange’ is definitely the correct adjective!

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

I suggest you check your file associations. Open:

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Default Programs\Set Associations

and be sure TurboTax doesn’t try to open any files associated with MATLAB (‘.m’, ‘.mdl’, etc.). MATLAB loads whenever one of these types of files is opened, even if MATLAB is not running and you click on an ‘.m’ file in File Explorer, for instance. (I’m running Win 8, but it’s likely the same in Win 7 and earlier versions.)

I never encountered that problem with TurboTax, but then for the past few years I’ve paid a friend to do my taxes. I suggest you default to a similar option if you can’t get this problem sorted in less than three days!

P.S. — MATLAB is quite useful in a variety of disciplines, significantly including bioinformatics and image processing. If you have access to a free version of it and necessary toolboxes, I suggest you explore its many capabilities in your discipline.

[Image Analyst]

It sounds like he just downloaded TurboTax recently, so I think that is the program he wants. It sounds like MATLAB had been on there prior to downloading TurboTax but for some reason the installation of TurboTax did not reassign the extensions. Sometimes programs will ask you about reassigning extensions (e.g. sound, image, video manager programs like QuickTime, Windows Media Player, ACDSee, etc.). If TurboTax asked about overwriting file extensions, he probably said No, so the handling of those extensions remained with MATLAB. The method StarStrider describes is a way to reassign extensions so that they will be opened by the desired program.

[Star Strider]

I apologise for not being clearer and more precise. I agree.

When I looked, only ‘.m’ files (and no other extensions) are associated with MATLAB on my machine. Using the Set Associations utility to change that association to TurboTax for the next three days (and then changing it back to MATLAB) might solve the problem.

[John Jungck]

It turns out that all that was needed was to change the suffix. Thanks for your help.

[Star Strider]

My pleasure!

(Didn’t know that was an option in TurboTax.)

[Image Analyst]

What is a suffix? Do you mean the extension? If so, what did you change the extension from and to? And what program launches now when you double click the file - MATLAB or TurboTax?

Star: you have only .m files associated with MATLAB? Strange because I have 19 extensions associated with MATLAB. In Windows 7, do Start -> Default Programs -> Set your Default Program -> MATLAB -> Choose defaults for this program. Count how many you see. I see 19. .m, .fig, .mat, .mdl, etc.

[Sean de Wolski]

*.mlappinstall

:)

[Star Strider]

Image Analyst — I have Win 7 on my other machine but Win 8 on this one (last 3 MATLAB releases). When I just now looked, only ‘.m’ files were associated with MATLAB. The ‘.fig’ and others were listed in their associations as ‘None selected’. For that matter, ‘.m’ files were associated with R2013a, even though R2014a works with them just fine. (Win 8 is strange. I’d have gotten Win 7 on this machine if I could have. Not an option.)

If I remember correctly, ‘suffix’ = ‘extension’, i.e. anything to the right of the dot in the file name. Both were common terms for the same thing over the years.