To block or to help.. which will I choose?
Geez.. sorry to be a downer, but why is there always someone sanctimonious in tech forums, whose sacred duty is to point out obvious factoids such as Northwind being included on your install cd? Therefore there is no valid reason to seek a download source.. therefore you use pirated software.. therefore—hint hint—you are really no better than a software pirate..
Speaking for myself, I found this page because I too am looking to download Northwind. I'm away from home for a few days, in another city—I can't just reach over and ACCESS the install cd. It would just be convenient if I could use that sample database right now. I re-configure fairly often and evidently, when I last installed Access, I didn't include Northwind. And I have no doubt that plenty of other situations exist, in which it is entirely reasonable to hope for downloads to assist in the use of software that we already paid for. After all, Northwind sample database is not much use on its own, is it? And wouldn't a pirated copy of Access be a copy of the whole cd? So wouldn't Northwind be there anyway? My apologies if I demonstrate profound ignorance of piracy practices, but shouldn't we be surprised if the pirates cherry-picked bits and pieces out of the genuine software? In my—admittedly non-expert—view, directing suspicion at someone who seeks to download a sample database, is purile and baseless.
