MS Access

[Pat Hartman]

On my new computer I installed O365. It has been years since I had to run this install. In their world Access doesn't exist. It was very sad to see. All the other components were installed on the Start Menu but not Access. Access was relegated to the "more" section.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

That is why when I decided to upgrade, I got an LTSC version from a company that sells licenses for out of date copies. I bought the Office Professional version that includes Access but it was for Office 2021. I don't care if I don't have THE latest and greatest version but it was time to retire the old Office 2010 version. Which I did.

 

[DickyP]

That is why when I decided to upgrade, I got an LTSC version from a company that sells licenses for out of date copies. I bought the Office Professional version that includes Access but it was for Office 2021. I don't care if I don't have THE latest and greatest version but it was time to retire the old Office 2010 version. Which I did.

Exactly what I did although my initial driver was cost. However, since then the problems people seem to have with 365 makes me glad I did as well. All it seems to give is early access to problems.

 

[AHeyne]

I rather understood Pat to mean that Microsoft Access was installed, but unfortunately it is not displayed prominently in the Start menu like the other applications, but in a sub-section 'More' and Microsoft seems to be increasingly 'ignoring' Access...

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I think I understood that, too, but at least for the LTSC version of Office 2021 Pro, Access isn't relegated to "red-headed stepchild."

 

[Gasman]

I always have Access. Excel, Word and Outlook on my taskbar at all times.

 

[Isaac]

I always have Access. Excel, Word and Outlook on my taskbar at all times.

My too, at least Excel, Word, Access, Calculator, Notepad and Chrome

 

[Pat Hartman]

I think you all missed my point. Microsoft no longer considers Access a lifeform. It adds all the other components to the menu and says it added Access but it didn't. When you finally find Access in the also ran list, it says it is on the menu but it isn't. The option to add Access to the menu is grayed out. You have to click the option to remove it from the menu. Then the option to add it to the menu becomes enabled. So you add it. Then Access shows up on the menu.

 

[AccessBlaster]

Their advertising of Access over the years tells you everything you need to know about how they feel about Access.

 

[theoboldsantos]

I use access in Windows since 2018.

 

[GPGeorge]

I use access in Windows since 2018.

1994 for me.

 

[AHeyne]

Puhhh, long ago... Microsoft Access 1.1 for me. 1993

 

[DickyP]

Puhhh, long ago... Microsoft Access 1.1 for me. 1993

Ah the good old days again.

Access 1.0 cost me just £19 (which seemed quite a lot then even though it was a special offer) and 1.1 was a free upgrade. Then I got given a 3 free copies of Ver 2.0 at the UK launch at the US Embassy in London.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

My first version of Access was 2.0, which did what I wanted with limited pain. It COULD have been done with Excel but I chose to try something new for the learning experience. And it did what was needed.

 

[Cotswold]

Indicators appear to be that MS cannot decide if they should abandon Access, or to enhance and continue with development.
If they issue an end of life they don't appear to have a replacement for the millions of Access users. They abandoned Visual FoxPro and still today there are users out there stuck at 2015. Personally, I'm not happy moving away from a PC product to an online and totally under MS control, alternative. Additionally, there is the issue of recurring unknown costs. If your development environment is online you cannot avoid annual charges, or any increases levied.

So many companies only have access to their accounts systems via unknown datacentres. Something I would not be happy with. Have they effectively handed control and responsibility of their future to unknown organisations without a safety net? Maybe unlikely but in the event of undersea cable damage or hacking by an unfriendly nation, would destroy those businesses if they lost access to their accounts, operational systems and bank accounts.

But maybe MS do not see Access as a large enough future income stream? There does appear to be many at MS who would like to shut it down.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Maybe unlikely but in the event of undersea cable damage or hacking by an unfriendly nation, would destroy those businesses if they lost access to their accounts, operational systems and bank accounts.

Let us not forget what AWS did to Parlar a couple of years ago. AWS did not like the fact that Parlar wasn't "regulating" discourse the way FB and Twittter were to squash liberal voices and opinions the government disagreed with and so with 24 hours warning cancelled their service plan. This not only cut off Parlar's website which of course was how they made their money via advertising but it also cut them off from EVERYTHING IT since their entire operation was run on cloud servers at Amazon. This should be a lesson to everyone to check your contract very carefully to be sure the provider has to give you proper notice if they no longer wish to do business with you. You try to move your entire operation from one provider to another "over night".

 

[Pat Hartman]

But maybe MS do not see Access as a large enough future income stream? There does appear to be many at MS who would like to shut it down.

I don't know if they can tell how many users Access actually has. Can they "see" users? Can they "see" developers? with their invasive code? I know that when they talk to their "big" customers, they find no fans of Access. All they hear are complaints about "bad" Access applications and Access always gets the blame.

 

[GPGeorge]

I don't know if they can tell how many users Access actually has. Can they "see" users? Can they "see" developers? with their invasive code? I know that when they talk to their "big" customers, they find no fans of Access. All they hear are complaints about "bad" Access applications and Access always gets the blame.

I'm sure Microsoft has telemetry that gives at least some level of information or proxy information which MS can use to estimate usage of Access. What that level of usage is, of course, I have no idea. I doubt it can differentiate "developer" usage from "end user" usage, but it ought to provide raw numbers.

By proxy information, I'm thinking of things like crash reports that identify MSAccess.exe for example.

 

[GPGeorge]

Indicators appear to be that MS cannot decide if they should abandon Access, or to enhance and continue with development.
If they issue an end of life they don't appear to have a replacement for the millions of Access users. They abandoned Visual FoxPro and still today there are users out there stuck at 2015. Personally, I'm not happy moving away from a PC product to an online and totally under MS control, alternative. Additionally, there is the issue of recurring unknown costs. If your development environment is online you cannot avoid annual charges, or any increases levied.

So many companies only have access to their accounts systems via unknown datacentres. Something I would not be happy with. Have they effectively handed control and responsibility of their future to unknown organisations without a safety net? Maybe unlikely but in the event of undersea cable damage or hacking by an unfriendly nation, would destroy those businesses if they lost access to their accounts, operational systems and bank accounts.

But maybe MS do not see Access as a large enough future income stream? There does appear to be many at MS who would like to shut it down.

You can't have too many backups, even if your live production data is "in the cloud". With a nod to Pat's and the_Doc_Man's experiences with backups on tape.

 

[Pat Hartman]

It's funny how Access has become the application that IT loves to hate. It is over 30 years old and going strong. It has had competitors over the years but none strong enough to unseat it as the premier development environment for small business applications.