access 2007 to exe

Question

Good day, made a database in ms access 2007 with forms, I need to create a stand alone exe file from access, is it possible? if yes. how?

thanks a mil

Answer 1

no it's not possible.

Answer 2

I don't believe it is possible. Sorry to say. You need the Access to launch and display the form.

Answer 3

If you have the Developer version of MS Access, you can create an '.mde' file, which operates just like an .exe file as far as your user is concerned. Essentially, creating an .mde wraps a version of the MS Access run-time along with your database.

As long as you have done a decent job with your form design, the user really can't tell the difference between your .mde file and a .exe.

I haven't used the Developer version in a number of years, but if I recall, it is quite expensive. EDIT (It appears to be free these days).

Here is a link to a good FAQ on the topic. Much more up-to-date than my recollections from the past.

Answer 4

You can't save it as .exe, but you could use the Access Runtime to allow users without Access to use your Application.

Answer 5

If I can just add my two cents worth...

You DO have to distribute the Access runtimes with your application. I heard recently on Stackoverflow on a questions that Microsoft runtimes for access are now freely downloadable.

Here are a couple of links...

http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/developeredition2007faq.htm
http://blogs.msdn.com/clintcovington/archive/2007/01/30/the-runtime-and-developer-extensions-will-be-free.aspx

You can either distribute these runtimes with your application or you can have your customer download them.

EDIT - THE BELOW IS PROVEN FALSE. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PURCHASE A LICENSE TO DISTRIBUTE THE RUNTIMES. Of course, they are distributed under a license but the license is free. I leave the comment below for its historical interest.
I think but am not sure that to distribute the access runtimes with your application you will have to have a license. I know that you used to get this license with an MSDN subscription and with Visual Studio Tools for Office.
END FALSEHOOD

Once you have the Access Runtimes, you can create BULLETPROOF runtime installations of Access apps using preconfigured installation scripts from SageKey.com.

Office developer tools comes with some deployment options but they are not bulletproof and I would NEVER distribute a commercial application using those...they just don't work. But the sagekey scripts absolutely ROCK. They work incredibly well.

All this presumes you want to widely distribute your app. If not (for example...you want to just deploy to your customers and you will have complete control over that) then you can use the download from Microsoft option mentioned above.

One last thing. Runtime access apps have to be VERY robust. You have to do error handling and automatic table linking very well among other things or you will spend all the time on the phone with your customers rather than selling/distributing software.

Hope this helps.

Seth

Answer 6

As far as bullet proof runtimes yes Sagekey is an answer. However another alternative is Albert Kallal's Inno script which checks to see if a version of Access is installed. If not it tells you to install a runtime version of Access. If installed then it continues to install your FE MDE and other assorted files. http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.access/msg/10e3fc9234660872?hl=en

Sample inno script which "wraps" the package wizard install into a single .exe http://groups.google.com/group/comp.databases.ms-access/msg/4aa1b33a191bf1f8?hl=en

Deploying updates to your software in a Runtime environment for Access 2007 http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKallal/RunTime/InstallExample.htm

The only scenario which it wouldn't handle well would be if the user does install Access or a different Access runtime on their system later. However if you ship your product in Access 2000 format the problems are minimized.