Access Runtime and PC Upgrades

[TheScullster]

Hi all

Currently I have 30 users most with Office Professional 2003, some with
Office Professional 2007.
Those users have Access simply for using the front end of our drawing
management database.
The db was created using Access 2000 and at the time attempts were made to
create a run-time version of the front end.
Can't remember the history, but for some reason the run-time version
failed/had issues so it was considered easier simply to have Access on each
PC.

I am now looking at replacing the desktop PCs and obviously there is a cost
implication to providing Access for all users.
The desktops are likely to be Dell or HP running Windows 7 and Office 2010.

So the questions are:

Are there likely to be any compatibility issues moving the front end from
WinXP and Office 2003 to Win7 and Office 2010 (the back end currently
resides on a Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit) box.

Is it worth trying to iron out bugs/re-write code etc related to delivering
a distributable run-time front end, or will it cost more to do that than the
difference between 30 x Office Vs 30 x Office Pro? I have had no Access
exposure for the last 5 years, so any re-work will have to be paid at the
going rate (whatever that may be).

Thanks

Phil

 

[David-W-Fenton]

Is it worth trying to iron out bugs/re-write code etc related to
delivering a distributable run-time front end, or will it cost
more to do that than the difference between 30 x Office Vs 30 x
Office Pro?

That all depends on the nature of the problems that are causing it
to break in the runtime. Office 2010 is more expensive than previous
versions of Office, but the cost of adding Access to the package is
not all that much greater than it was in the past. But it's still
quite an expense. Another thing to consider is that if the licenses
for full Access are not OEM licenses (i.e., tied to the computers
they were purchased with), you can just install the older versions
of Access on the new machines. A2003 runs fine on Win7, 32- or
64-bit.

I would want to deploy with the runtime if I were in the situation
you describe. You can test runtime behavior in a full copy of access
by using the /runtime commandline switch. Also, if you rename the
front end to MDR or ACCDR, it should execute in runtime mode (I am
told -- I've never tried that). This would tell you what problems
there are and then you can come back here and post about them in
order to see if.

 

[TheScullster]

That all depends on the nature of the problems that are causing it
to break in the runtime. Office 2010 is more expensive than previous
versions of Office, but the cost of adding Access to the package is
not all that much greater than it was in the past. But it's still
quite an expense. Another thing to consider is that if the licenses
for full Access are not OEM licenses (i.e., tied to the computers
they were purchased with), you can just install the older versions
of Access on the new machines. A2003 runs fine on Win7, 32- or
64-bit.

I would want to deploy with the runtime if I were in the situation
you describe. You can test runtime behavior in a full copy of access
by using the /runtime commandline switch. Also, if you rename the
front end to MDR or ACCDR, it should execute in runtime mode (I am
told -- I've never tried that). This would tell you what problems
there are and then you can come back here and post about them in
order to see if.

Thanks David - good call on installing previous Access - unfortunately all
the desktops have OEM version

Phil

 

[Access Developer]

It's worth trying to obtain a copy of the Access 2010 runtime and test with
it. There have been many reports of the freely-downloadable Access 2007 and
Access 2010 runtimes running earlier "compiled" versions back to Access 2000
with no problem. That, of course, is not predictive that your particular
database application will also run with no problem.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Office Access MVP

 

[David-W-Fenton]

It's worth trying to obtain a copy of the Access 2010 runtime and
test with it.

You don't actually need the runtime to test -- you can test with
full A2010 loaded with the /runtime switch.