Access 2003 --- Access 2007 Runtime Conflict

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brad
  • Start date Start date
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Brad

Background

Several people at our firm in Department “A†use Access 2003 to work with an
older Access 2003 Database. This system has worked nicely for several years.

We have built a new system for Department “Bâ€. The people in this
department use Access 2007 Runtime. This works nicely for them.

Recently a person in Department “A†wanted to use a component of the Access
2007 system that was build for Department “Bâ€. We downloaded Access 2007
Runtime for this person. They now can use the new Access 2007 System – This
works nicely… however…

The Problem...

Each time the person in Department “A†uses the new Access 2007 system (via
Runtime), they receive a message “Please wait while Windows Configures
Microsoft Office Access Runtimeâ€. After using Access 2007 Runtime they
receive a similar message when they use the older Access 2003 system.

(In other words, this PC has both Access 2003 and Access 2007 Runtime
installed on it).

I suggested that we use Access 2007 Runtime for both the old system and the
new system. Unfortunately, the user needs the Access 2003 “task bar†to do
their job. This is not shown with Access 2007 Runtime.

Is there a way to eliminate the “Please wait while Windows Configures…â€
message as the user goes between the old Access 2003 application and the new
Access 2007 Runtime application? (This reconfiguration takes about 30
seconds to complete)

Is there a way to overcome this dilemma?

Thanks for your help,

Brad
 
Hi Brad,

This reconfiguration is a known problem. There are two ways that I know of
to avoid this problem. The first is to install the runtime in a virtual
machine, with a guest operating system, that is completely isolated from a
host machine. The second method involves using SageKey software:

http://www.sagekey.com/installation_access.aspx


Tom Wickerath
Microsoft Access MVP
http://www.accessmvp.com/TWickerath/
__________________________________________
 
Tom,

Thanks for your assistance. I really appreciate the help.

Unforunately, neither of these two options sound real appealing (limited
budget, limited time).

We will probably continue to look for another approach.

Thanks again,

Brad
 
Hi Brad,
We will probably continue to look for another approach.
Click to expand...

Okay, I just thought of a third possibility: Get a different computer.
Otherwise, just live with the situation. There's already been lots of people
spend tons of time on addressing this very issue (and only the folks at
SageKey seem to have hit on the solution).


Tom Wickerath
Microsoft Access MVP
http://www.accessmvp.com/TWickerath/
__________________________________________
 
Unforunately, neither of these two options sound real appealing
(limited budget, limited time).

We will probably continue to look for another approach.
Click to expand...

Then you're really out of luck, as there are no other solutions for
running the two versions of Access on the same computer.

And, yes, it's quite annoying. I often avoid answering A2007
questions because my daily work is in A2003 and don't want to have
to wait through the reconfiguration delays that would be necessitaed
by firing up A2007 to investigate an answer.
 
David,

Thanks for your insight.

One of my concerns is that I really don't know what the "re-config" is doing
behind the scenes. I think that we can live with it as long as we are sure
that it isn't going to mess something up by being done over and over.

Brad
 
One of my concerns is that I really don't know what the
"re-config" is doing behind the scenes.
Click to expand...

It's changing a lot of registry settings for the canonical version
of Access that handles the Access file association. That is, it
reconfigures the registry to point to a particular version of Access
that will be the one executed when, for example, you doubleclick and
MDB in Windows Explorer. It's substantially more complicated than
that, but that's the basic idea of what it's doing.
I think that we can live with it as long as we are sure
that it isn't going to mess something up by being done over and
over.
Click to expand...

If it's happening in sequence, it isn't an issue, but if you have
one version open and then open the other one while keeping the
initial version open, it can cause problems in the first instance,
because the environment its running in is different. I don't run
both very often, but I've had the situation where leaving A2003 open
while running A2007 caused the reconfiguration to A2007 as canonical
Access version caused A2003 to start behaving strangely (symptoms
that were similar to those of missing references). The solution was
to close both and restart A2003.

It's quite annoying that Microsoft doesn't think this is important
to fix, but we've had this issue since the introduction of the
Microsoft Installer in A2000, and I doubt it's ever going to be
fixed -- it seems to suit Microsoft's agenda, which just so happens
to be in conflict with the needs of many of us who have to run
multiple versions.
 
Okay, I just thought of a third possibility: Get a different computer.
Otherwise, just live with the situation. There's already been lots of people
spend tons of time on addressing this very issue (and only the folks at
SageKey seem to have hit on the solution).
Click to expand...

I know it probably doesn't solve the OP's problem, because I doubt if
their company is ready for Windows 7, but...

Has anyone tried Windows 7's Virtual XP mode for earlier versions of
Access? Couldn't you install the Access 2003 version in that,
effectively running it in a window on a different VM without the
configuration hassles?

Armen Stein
Microsoft Access MVP
www.JStreetTech.com
 
David,

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it. Anything that changes the registry on
a possible frequent basis scares me a bit, especially in an environment where
an end-user may have multiple copies of both Access 2003 and Access 2007
running at the same time.

I am now thinking that we will go through the work to get everyone running
on Access 2007 Runtime sooner rather than later. This is going to take some
work but it is doable.

Thanks again for your insights.

Brad
 
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