Permanently deleting a Microsoft Money File

The simplest way of deleting your Microsoft Money data and either starting again, or ceasing to use the program, is to remove your .MNY file (see Article 324 for information on how to find it).

Once this is removed, then starting up Microsoft Money again will require you to start with a new data file.

If you have backups (which you should always have - Article 199), and are removing all traces of the file, then don't forget to search for these and remove them too. Their extension is .MBF (see Article 196 for all Microsoft Money file extensions).

If you are removing the file from a computer, because you are selling it, or passing it on, then don't forget to also remove the file from the recycle bin. You may want to invest in some additional security software which can write to your hard drive and remove all traces of the software (when you delete a file, it doesn't delete the bytes of information off the disk, but only the pointers to the file - subsequent writes to the disk may then use the space freed up).