H&R Block TaxCut

What works

Importing previous year's return

Saving current return

Federal Q&A

State Q&A

IRS form view

What does not

The update utility HRBlock_PremiumSE_2017_Update_F.exe downloaded from the Block website ( https://www.hrblock.com/tax-so... ) starts, but throws 80 lines of error messages, doesn't finish, and installs nothing. The program refuses to print a submittable return without having an update installed, so no further testing was done.

Workarounds

winetricks ie8 (requires cabextract).

The state installer downloaded from Block's support installs the state software in the default directory where it's launched, so it has to be run from $installation_directory/Program.  If it's invoked elsewhere, it will create a new directory named 0, and the contents of 0 can be moved from there to $installation_directory/Program.

What was not tested

Electronic filing

In-program online updates

In-program online state software download

Help system

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU: Intel
• Driver: open source

Additional Comments

Actually used Wine 3.4. The program was tested offline (no internet connection).

The installer throws an error dialog "Error Windows Installer 4.5.6001.22308," but installation seems to proceed with no apparent problems after the dialog is dismissed.

The program *almost* works with Gecko alone, but has significant display problems which winetricks ie8 fixes.

Q&A testing was cursory and incomplete, but all the functions seemed to work.

Although it's not possible to print a submittable return under Wine, it should be possible to save the completed return, open it in an updated copy of the program installed under Windows, and print or electronically file from there.