Well, the mde format really has nothing to do with the Developer Edition,
and it has nothing to do with deployment. It's merely a different format of
your database. The .mde format compiles your VBA code and removes the
ability of endusers to enter design view for forms and reports. The
Developer edition of Access provides you many things, including the Access
runtime you can use to distribute your database to those who don't have
Access installed, several ActiveX controls that <somewhat> work in Access,
the Package and Deploy Wizard, and a few other goodies. I deploy my apps in
the mde format; others don't. The mde format is less likely to corrupt, but
does have some limitations (i.e. you can't manipulate Forms/Reports in
design view programatically for example).
If you're going to deploy to several users, you should split your database
if you haven't done so already. Access provides a splitter wizard to make
this easy. The "backend" (i.e. tables) would go on your server, the
"frontend" (everything else) would be distributed to everyone else.
Is your data being stored in SQL Server? If so, are you using linked tables?
Have you tested the product with SQL Server? You'll almost certainly run
into some bumps if you haven't already tested your app in this environment.
Did you use an ActiveX controls in your app (like a Calendar control, etc)?
If so, you'll have to make sure those controls are properly installed and
registered on enduser machines. How about odd fonts? Same applies to those.
There are several commercial installers that can handle these chores for
you; Inno Setup is free and does a very good job (Google on Inno Setup to
locate it).
Are you deploying to users with the SAME or greater version of Access as the
one in which you developed (and compiled) your application? Do your
endusers have the same references? For example, if you used a reference to
Excel 2002, users would have to have Excel 2002/2003 installed on their
machine; Excel 2000 won't work.
It'd be a good idea to make sure your endusers have the correct version of
DAO, MDAC, and Jet on their machines. Again, a commercial installer can
check these things for you (or if your company has an IT deparment, simply
let them verify it).
