CAVEAT: NETFILE did not work for me.  I had to submit my taxes through an installation done on Windows

1. Install PlayOnLinux and then run it (e.g. starting it through the Terminal)

sudo apt-get install playonlinux

2. Click “Tools” > “Manage wine versions”
3. Choose 1.7.27 under “Available Wine versions” and then click the right arrow “>”
4. Go through the steps in the installer and let it finish
5. Back in the PlayOnLinux main screen, click “Install” in the menu, and then click “Install a non-listed program” on the bottom left
6. Choose “Use another version of Wine”, when asked, and then choose 1.7.27
7. Choose “Install a program in a new virtual drive”, when asked
8. Choose “32 bits windows installation”, when asked
9. Find the location of setup.exe for the TurboTax installer (I copied the files off of the disc to a place on my hard drive)
10. Ignore the message “Error in FS_Check” if it appears
11. Let the install complete, but do not launch TurboTax right away
12. Choose “tt2014.exe”, if asked to create a shortcut
13. Back in the PlayOnLinux main screen, select entry for TurboTax and click “Configure” in the menu
14. Make sure the “Wine version” is set to 1.7.27
15. Under “Install components”, install the following in this order (some of these may not be required, but I don’t know which since this is the configuration that worked for me):
    • vcrun2012
    • Microsoft Core Fonts
    • msvc100
    • RegisterFonts
    • vcrun2010
    • dotnet40
    • d3dx9
    • mono28
    • Internet Explorer 8 (click “Restart” in the installer)
    • crypt32
16. Back in the PlayOnLinux main screen, clicking “Run” for TurboTax 2014 should now work!

This is what worked for me, so hopefully this will work for others.

However, I stumbled upon something called symbolic links (symlinks for short).  Basically it is a pointer to another directory.  I put a symlink in my Dropbox folder which pointed to my desktop and now inside my Dropbox folder there is a folder called “Desktop”.  Well, it’s not exactly a folder.  It’s a symbolic link.  When the computer follows the link when I double click it, it just leads to the destination directory that I set.  So now Dropbox has no problem syncing that directory!

EDIT May 21, 2010: Apparently Dropbox can’t actually follow the symlinks inside the Dropbox directory while its running.  The originals have to be inside the Dropbox folder and the symlink has to be put at where you used to access those files before.  At the same time, shortcuts can be used in place of symlinks.

More info about symlinks here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8247-windows-xp-mode-install-setup.html

If the applications don’t appear, disable and enable the “Auto-Publish” setting within the VM”s settings

Working with Virtual Applications

By default, applications installed in the Windows XP VM are auto-published to the Windows 7 host. This means that your Windows XP applications appear on Windows 7’s Start menu. You can then launch your XP applications without having to first load the Windows XP VM and then launch them from the virtual Windows XP’s Start menu.

In order for a Windows XP application to be auto-published to the Windows 7 host, the application must be installed in the All Users profile in the Windows XP VM. However, not all applications are installed in the All Users profile by default.

So, what if the application that you want to be able to run from within Windows 7 isn’t auto-published? Or what if an application is auto-published and you really don’t want it to be available from within Windows 7? Fortunately, you can take control of the auto-published using a couple of tips.

If the XP application that you want to be able to run from within Windows 7 isn’t auto-published, you can force it to be so simply by creating a shortcut to the application in the All Users profile in the Windows XP VM. When you do so, the application will be auto-published to the Windows 7 host.

Access the Windows XP VM, right-click the Start button, and select the Open All Users command. When Windows Explorer launches, open the Programs folder. Once there, you can either drag-and-drop the shortcut from Windows XP’s Start menu to the Programs folder or you can launch the Create Shortcut wizard, as shown in Figure A.