Running Access 2003 and Access 97

[Gary Browning]

I have clients that have Access 97 installed, and now I'm deploying some
Access 2003 solutions using the developer's toolkit and the runtime license.

I know both versions can coexist on the same machine, but the issue I see is
Windows sets the default file type to whatever version of Access was opened
last. After they work in a new Access 2003 database, they try to open one of
their old Access 97 db's and get the "unrecognizable database format"
message. The users don't have a path to the Access 97 .exe file in the
shortcut, just the database. So far for the one machine I've worked with,
I've had to modify each shortcut on the desktop and tell it which version of
Access to use.

I have a lot of users and lots of shortcuts. Is there a way to set which
version of Access is the default, and keep constant and not change, rather
than having to modify each shortcut and point it to the right Access .exe
file?

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

Unfortunately, Access will always set the default to the most recently used
version.

There are 3rd party products that may help you, though.

ACCVER from: http://www.aylott.com.au/software.htm
Total Access Startup from http://www.fmsinc.com/products/startup
Access Opener from
http://www.worship.co.za/BlackandWhiteInc/AccessOpener.htm