Desktop Program Requirements with Access Backend

[cjohnson]

I am writing a VB.net 2005 program for a client that uses a static Access database. The program calculates financial costs. The client in turn wants to distribute to others. If I include the database in my resources, and send the client the published installer, will the users need to have MS Access on their computers to run?
Thanks,
Chris

 

[jmcilhinney]

One of the main attractions of Access is that the end user doesn't need to install any special software to use a database. The engine is built into Windows. If all users have WinXP then they have everything they need. If the database is Access 2003 and some users have older versions of Windows then you may need to include the latest version of MDAC in your installer. I'm not sure what or if other versions support Access 2003 out-of-the-box but MSDN would have all the details.

 

[cjohnson]

Thank you very much. Very helpful. Couldn't find this information searching the net.
Chris

 

[cjard]

Access is a front end for the Microsoft Jet (Red) Database Engine. As J notes, the it is not necessary to have Access to connect your app to Jet databases (because Your App and Access are conceptualy the same thing; a program that connects to Jet Database), but it is necessary to have MDAC 2.6 or above as MDAC is the database driver for Jet DBs and 2.6 was the version that brought support for .NET apps - 2.8 is a recommended and free download from Microsoft. Most users should have this already, though i'm not sure if it installs along with the .NET framework.

One day, hopefully, SQL Server Express will achieve the same with-the-os integration and distributing drivers for that wont be required