DB COMPACT - notice Strange (but good) for Access 2010 (2013)

[Rx_]

Can anyone else validate this? Any ideas as to why this happens?
Compact and Repair behaves differently (much better) if Access 2010 is just opened in Access 2013, then opened in Access 2010 for Compact.

Made this observation this morning. Access 2010 would compact the DB down to 100 Meg. After opening it in Access 2013 (doing nothing) then opeing the same DB in Access 2010 and running Compact and Repair, it compressed to 79 Meg.

We develop with Access 2010 to distribute on Citrix as a thin-client application. The Citrix Server launches Access 2010.

Our Access Application (using Linked Tables to SQL Server) would consistantlly compact to 100 M.
Last night, IT pushed some MS Patches. My Workstation has both Access 2010 and Access 2013. The desktop default is Access 2013. The Citrix has not been updated so we continue to develope in Access 2010.

The IT update changed my default to Access 2013. So, with out thinking, the Access 2010 was opened (holding the shift key down). Once I saw the Access 2013, I immediatelly closed it. Then opened the same Access file in Access 2010. From there, I ran the Compact and Repair in Access 2010. To my amazement, it compacted to 79 Meg.

1. Open a file in Access 2010, run compact & repair (C&R) size 100M
2. Open same file with Access 2013 (hold shift key down so it doesn't open anything). Then immediately close it. Still 100M
3. Reopen same file in Access 2010 (hold shift key down) and run C&R
4. Same file is now 79M

Our preliminary testing of the new release doesn't indicate any problems.
We re-created the exact situation 3 times in a row. For now will say that it is validation the opening a file in Access 2010, then C&R in 2010 does super compact the file.

 

[Rx_]

Another user just verified this on a different PC. Again, they opened in Access 2013, closed it, then opened in Access 2010. Compacted over 20% more than it would in Access 2010 alone.

 

[Rx_]

Followup:
We have been runing 3 new releases since this. Absolutely no problems or issues. The DB continues to Compact and Repair at the more efficient compression.

We develop on desktop with Access 2010 (that had Access 2013 also dual installed).
The Deployment is on a pure Access 2010 Citrix stand-alone Citrix server.
So, the deployment version is working perfectlly.

In Citrix, each user starts a session by obtaining a individual copy of the deployment in a virutal folder. The deployment version has many local tables (small in size). Forms and vba code are huge. It has DSN-Less Linked tables to SQL Server 2008 using SQL Server Native Client.

A 100 Megs dropping down to under 80 Megs is not a huge deal in itself. It was just very noticeable. And, it keeps on working after opeining up the Access file just once in Access 2013 and closing it.