Hello,

I want to have MSACcess ver. 2K, XP and 2007 on my laptop. I do not know I have tried to installed it by starting from the lowest vers. but It failed. It can only shows the latest version. I have tried to put in on different directory, and still failed. Now I have problem that I can not even installed Ver.2K any more. Error message shows there is an "MSIEXEC" file problem. The error message says: "msiexec.exe encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience"

The purpose of having those multiple versions is to make the MDE. Is there any way to upgrade the make, so that we can make the MDE in ver.2007?

Thanks for any ideas.

Frank

This post has been edited by Frank Situmorang: Dec 20 2011, 05:56 PM

Frank

If I were doing what you describe, I would create virtual machines and install the different versions of Access in different machines (but all on the same physical laptop).

Agreed, MS vaguely states that you can have multiple versions, but I've never heard of anyone doing it *without headache.* In fact, it can be downright disasterous if you open a critical file in the wrong version and it goes about "doing you the favor of converting it for you" (that was day two of my two day attempt at this).

Virtual Machines are excellent. I highly recommend VMware tools. MS's Virtual XP for Win7 Pro is free, but if you can spend the money on VM it far outshines (IMHO anyway).

Cheers,

I have never had the slightest problem installing multiple versions (on all my machines)

A97, A2002, A2003, A2007, A2010 all on the same PC.

start at the bottom. when you install the next, keep previous versions.

you can have TOO MUCH memory for A97.
if you install in the wrong order you get incorrect "licence error" issues with A97

later versions have to reinstall in order to run, which is a pain.

the MSIEXEC is the install command file , i think. if this is broke, it won't be able to delete/repair. see if you can find a command line switch to force a clean removal . Try MS knowledge base.

Virtual Machines have my vote as well

Jeff and all others,

Could you explain what virtual machine is?. How can we install them in the same pc.


Frank

A Virtual Machine is an application that provides an environment for you to install additional operating systems on. It creates a file (or files) on your physical drive which serves as a virtual drive, and you install an additional operating system to that virtual drive (XP mode does this for you, VMware uses a wizard).

The Virtual Machine application hosts this drive and OS, taking care of things such as mapping hardware, networks and device drivers. In essence, you run a full screen app that is a different operating system.

If you have Win7 Pro (or Ultimate), you have rights to a free copy of Microsoft's XP Mode... you'll have to download it (takes forever, as you need to download the WinXP installation along with it), but it's free and the XP license goes with it. MS did this to support legacy apps on Win7.

VMware (or most others), you need to purchase the software, as well as the copy of the OS you want to install (it need not be Windows XP - you can generally run any OS, not only Windows). Depending on your requirements, it may or may not be worth the purchase.

VMs in general are used specifically for obtaining a development/testing OS/Platform without the requirement of a whole different computer.

A little time consuming to get set up, but well worth it (also note that regular maintanence of the guest OS is required just like your normal OS).

Also note that the two (or more) OS must share resources... you can choose how many processors and cores to designate to the VM, as well as the available RAM. If you're current computer doesn't have some to spare you will likely see a significant slowdown while the VM is running.

hth

Thank you Jleach for your explanation. My laptop has an WinXP Operating system, with 2GB RAM QuartoDuo processor. For the time being my requirement is to be able to install multiple version of MS Access. With these requirement do you think my Laptop will get slower?

IF we go to any Software Sellres do they have this VMware Software. I am just new to this.

Thanks,

Frank

There is a VMWare player, which should work, and is free, however you will need the operating system installation disks to install the operating system.

VM Player

2GB Ram should be fine, recommended min for an XP VM is probably 512, which will leave you enough on your main OS while the VM is running. I'm not sure about the processor (I don't recognize the QuartoDou), or what options are allowed with the VM Player that WildBird linked to (I use VMware's Workstation), but I wouldn't think it'd be an issue either... you can usually get a away with a fairly slow processor more easily than you can a very limited amount of RAM.

For a simple VM to run a secondary Office installation I'm going to guess you'll be fine, just don't expect the VM to be lightening fast. You'll be able to link from your VM OS to your local hard disks after the installation (the VM OS will treat them as a network location/shared folder). If you make use of external drives, you can be connected to only on OS at a time.

hth

I keep my versions of Access separate the same way - using VM, but I settled on Oracle VM VirtualBox after using all the others, and can recommend it; it's free also. If you really need to use the Microsoft version - that would be "Microsoft Virtual PC 2007" - it runs on XP. I think Oracle VirtualBox is faster and handles fonts much better for a clearer screen, and has more features like the ability to read from a USB drive.

What may not be clear is that you must have a legal, unused copy of Windows XP to install in the VM because you must then get all the MS updates. That shouldn't be too hard to find because everyone is throwing them away now. The only exception is XP Mode running under Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate. That version of XP is free, but that is not an option for you anyway.

Running an XP virtual machine under XP will work; you'll find it a little slower. The only thing to watch out for is how much of the 2G memory is being taken by the video subsystem on your laptop.

FWIW - I regularly install multiple versions of MS Office on a single workstation. I use different folders (ex, MSO_2K3, MSO_2K7, MSO_2K10) and have not had any issues with Access or any other Office Suite application.


AvgJoe (IMG:style_emoticons/default/hat_tip.gif)

OK Joe, I will try again your way. But why there is an error message saying: "msiexec.exe encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience".

Thanks for your help again.


Frank

I do this too. The only downside is the reinstall everytime you open a different version.

I had tried this before going the VM route, and technically it worked, but what really deterred me (aside from the reg edits every time you switched versions) was that one day I acidentally cliked an '03 format file while '07 was currently registered to handle mdbs, and it wasn't what I wanted at all... upon starting in '07, the mdb was changed in an attempt to open/convert (whatever it does), and that particular file was in all practicality ruined (good thing I'm big on backing up).

While I can understand and agree that this is possible, the pains of having to be very careful which version files open where, at the risk of seriously corrupting the file if you double click a file without explicitly noting what version will attempt to open it, was unacceptable to me.

(just my 2cents - not trying to say anyone is wrong or put down any particular method, just noting that I had a db get screwed up because I wasn't careful abotu opening it - something most people don't often think about, as you can see I certainly wasn't in the habit of it)

Cheers,

It should give you a warning when it opens and ask you if you want to convert it or open it read only. You do make a good point in that for design changes you have to be very careful to open the correct version.

This brings up a question that I have been wanting to pose. What is the best way to handle the VBA library references for circumstances when the majority of the users have the 2000 version and a couple have 2003 and a couple have 2007? Can it be handled without having a FE for each version?


Matt J

Good question, although maybe better suited for it's own thread.

Read this: Trigeminal Software: How to guarantee that references will work in your applications (this was written by Michael Kaplan - he was part of the development team for Access and participated a lot in the communities - e.g. - you won't find more accurate information than this, aside from being part of MS yourself)

cheers

In my case, it was even worse.

When I had 2003 and 2007 installed on one VM (yes, I had VM back then but was a lazy [censored] and thought what's the harm), at one point I somehow managed to get it in such state that the Access 2007 would load with Access 2003 library object. Of course that meant 2007 features wouldn't work. Because Access object library is one of two library references managed by Access (you cannot change it yourself), there was no way to fix it and it just didn't get fixed when doing that registry switching thingy. 2003 was then FUBAR'd.

So it's not just the db files that is at risk. If it was the only computer and I had no VMs, my only option would have been to reinstall Office and even so, that's not a guaranteed fix.

If there's an epitome of "just because you can, doesn't mean you should", this comes pretty darned close in my opinion. I've since come to believe that the multiple-version support was largely a concussion on Microsoft's part to make the transition less painful so it'd work OK in short-term but eventually, people would get tired of the hassles and upgrade completely after a bit of time. It was not really designed for developer in mind, IMHO.

Thanks for the link

Matt J