Has MS dropped support for Access 2003 from Visual Studio 2008?

[Hunter57]

I have searched but have found not the slightest indication that Visual
Studio 2008 has any support for Microsoft Access 2003, although there is a
lot of documentation for other 2003 Office Applications. One of the main
reasons I purchased Visual Studio Professional Edition was to deploy Access
2003 runtime Applications and develop Access com add-ins. I can find no
Project templates for Access 2003 so I am unable to do anything. If someone
knows a workaround for this I would appreciate an help.

If MS has dropped Access 2003 from VSTO we should have been informed about
it. The very least Microsoft could do for us is to allow those who have
purchased VSTO to download the Access 2003 Developer's Extensions without
charging us for it.

Does anybody know anything about this?

Patrick Wood

 

[Chris O'C via AccessMonster.com]

No version of Visual Studio Professional contains the Access developer
extensions, including 2008, so you can't complain support has been dropped.

To deploy the Access 2003 runtime, you had to purchase an edition of VSTO
2003 or 2005 that contained the Access developer extensions. Not all
editions did. If it was expensive, it did. (They cost between $650 and $800.
) Otherwise, VSTO didn't contain the Access developer extensions.

It may be cheaper to upgrade to Access 2007. You can download the free
Access 2007 runtime and developer extensions.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...D9-9DC6-4B38-9FA6-2C745A175AED&displaylang=en


http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...58-ECE4-4BEE-A844-F81856DCEB67&displaylang=en


Chris
Microsoft MVP

 

[Albert D. Kallal]

I have searched but have found not the slightest indication that Visual
Studio 2008 has any support for Microsoft Access 2003, although there is a
lot of documentation for other 2003 Office Applications. One of the main
reasons I purchased Visual Studio Professional Edition was to deploy
Access
2003 runtime Applications and develop Access com add-ins. I can find no
Project templates for Access 2003 so I am unable to do anything. If
someone
knows a workaround for this I would appreciate an help.

If MS has dropped Access 2003 from VSTO we should have been informed about
it.

First all, you confusing VS, and VSTO.

Visual Studio 2005 NEVER had the developer extensions for access either.
So, you miss-Informed in both cases.

I will state this VERY simple:

You NEVER had to purchase Visual Studio to get the access developer
extensions.

Furthermore purchasing visual studio NEVER gave you the developer tools for
MS access.

Furthermore VSTO (visual studio tools for office) is not the same thing as
visual studio.

I would also think that since there been new versions of ms-access since
1991, than you can just out of the blue pick one version of some tools, and
hope on a wing and a prayer it's going to have the correct version of the
developer tools for MS access included.

There's some further explain of this issue here:
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/developereditionversions.htm

You do not have to buy visual studio to get the access developer's
extensions. I should also point out that it is correct as far as I know
right now, both access 2003, and the access 2003 developer extensions not
available for purchase from Microsoft. There's a number of vendors in the
distribution channels that likey still do continue to sell older versions of
office for sale.

Perhaps the only bright spot here is that for access 2007, the developer
tools and package wizard is a complete free download, and you don't have to
purchase anything at all.

 

[Hunter57]

Hi,

Thanks for answering my post. I have Visual Studio 2008 Professional which
includes Visual Studio Tools for Office.

From this site:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb398242.aspx
-----------------------------
Visual Studio Editions That Include Visual Studio Tools for Office

Visual Studio Tools for Office is included with the following editions of
Visual Studio:

Visual Studio 2008 Professional

Team Edition for Architects

Team Edition for Database Professionals

Team Edition for Developers

Team Edition for Testers
------------------------

Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005 included Developer Extensions and a
license for the Access 2003 Runtime.

See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zcbsd3cz(VS.80).aspx

"Includes Microsoft Office Access 2003 Developer Extensions and a license
for the Access 2003 Runtime"

Now I have VSTO 2008 but can find no support for Access 2003.

I did not purchase Visual Studio 2008 for working with Access alone.
However, I did expect VSTO to support Access as it did in 2005.

Microsoft informs us that Office is supported by Visual Studion Professional
2008, so I had no reason to believe that Access was not supported as it was
with VSTO 2005. I have searched but have found nothing from Microsoft saying
that VSTO 2008 does not support Access 2003.

Best Regards,
Pat Wood