The MS "update" that removes Excel -> Access functionality

[Travis]

Are there any good web articles discussing the reasons behind the
Access "update"?

I want to know what is being taken away, why, and whether I can simply
continue to ignore the update indefinitely or whether it would
eventually get installed on the sly...

Travis

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

It's not as though it was a voluntary decision on Microsoft's part. As
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=904953 states, it was because of legal
issues. They lost a court decision, and have to pay a fairly sizable
settlement:
http://news.com.com/Patent+ruling+costs+Microsoft+8.9+million/2100-1007_3-5735432.html

 

[Guest]

I'm no supporter of current Software Patent laws, but in the
end, this was a commercial decision by MS, not something
'forced' on them. They could pay licensing fees: they have
decided it is not commercially attractive to do so.

I don't have access to the A12 Beta: perhaps MS will pursue
a deal for the new version.

Users who where using this functionality have my sympathy.

But I'm not going to miss it myself.. Updating a linked Excel
Table is limited and limiting at the best of times. Why would
I want to update a linked Excel Table unless it was shared with
someone of something? And writing to a linked Excel Table
puts an exclusive lock on it.

(david)

 

[Guest]

You're probably safe: the update was done as a change
to MSAccess.exe, not to some obscure dll, so it is not
likely to happen 'on the sly'.

But you're living in the past.

Of course, who am I to talk? I still prefer A2.0.

(david)

 

[david epsom dot com dot au]

But not as safe as I thought: although msEXCL40.dll (jet)
was not changed, it was replaced by a reference to MSAexp30.dll
(which is part of Access).

That is, Jet now references an Access dll to do Excel data.

That is, the Access 11 service pack updates the behaviour
of Access 10 and 9, and DAO and ADO.

I don't know what exactly happened, but I had to repair
my A2000 installation to get my "Create Spreadsheet"
export queries to work again.

Even after I restored the reference to msEXCL40.dll and
re-registered it, I was still getting "IISAM not found"
errors.


(david)

 

[Danny J. Lesandrini]

I'm curious to know if anyone else has had any problems with other
libraries since the update. One client's app generated an odd low-
level error (referencing an Isomething variable I didn't create) on
the File System Object. The next day, a second client experienced
a problem with File System Object reference and when they called
Microsoft for support, they were assured there was nothing wrong
with their MDB application and they would have to speak with the
network guy to resolve the issue. Interesting that it followed on the
heels of the Office update.