Installing Access 2010

[goodfu]

I have Office Professional 2007 and I was thinking of getting Access 2010 and installing it in addition to 2007. Can this be done? Would having 2 versions of Access on the same computer cause problems?

 

[Mr. B]

This is certainly possible and in fact many of us run multiple versions of Access on the same computer. I am running 97, 2002, 2007 and 2010 on the same machine. The only problem that I have is the same one the everyone will experience and that is the "install" delay when switching from 97 or 2003 to 2007 or 2010 or even between 2007 and 2010. The will be a delay while the version you are going to use is reconfigured. This really does not create any "problem" but forces you to wait for a while.

 

[goodfu]

I just noticed Microsoft has a trial version of Office 2010 so I think I'll do that. Do I need to change the folder name?

 

[goodfu]

Could do without Word 2010, Excel 2010, etc.

 

[Mr. B]

The one thing that I remember about the installation process is that you need to use the "custom" opton so you can tell the intaller that you want to keep all current versions.

I did not try to use the trial versions so I do not have any first hand experience with that. There may be a trial version of only Access 2010. I would look for that first.

 

[goodfu]

Thanks for warning me.

 

[Mr. B]

No problem. Good luck.

 

[Banana]

While side-by-side installation has been possible for several versions, it's my opinion that they introduce far more hassle than what they're worth. It is possible to get one in a bad configuration that interferes with operation of any Office product and can be very difficult to resolve (e.g. uninstall & reinstall may not recover). This remains the case however you customize the installation - all Office products has a large base of shared pieces that would clash with different version (hence the re-configuration every time you switch versions)

If you can, use virtual machines and put different versions in each machine - that's much less hassle and allow you to quickly share files for different versions not to mention being able to simply test for different versions & OSes if so desired.

 

[goodfu]

Oh, no! And I don't even have the disks for Office 2007. How do you create a virtual machine?

 

[Banana]

If you have right version of Windows 7, you may be able to get away with using XP Mode which is a form of virtual machine.

However, to have more than one VMs or choose different OSes, you have to buy virtualization software... VMWare or Virtual PCs

 

[goodfu]

Thanks for the tip. Looks like I'm gonna have to start up my old computer.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

there are generally no problems - success versions of office install into different folders

A97 = c:\program files\microsoft office\office
AXP (2002?) = c:\program files\microsoft office10
A2003 = c:\program files\microsoft office\office11
A2007 = c:\program files\microsoft office\office12
A2010 = c:\program files\microsoft office\office14 (I think - was 13 unlucky?)

The thing is that moving from A2003 to A2007 and back causes a reinstallation - but I don't think you get issues like that between A2007 and A2010

 

[goodfu]

I'm typing this in from the old computer! It would be much easier to have both on one computer as I only have 1 monitor and 1 internet commection but if there's any chance of a problem maybe I should just go ahead and put it here. BTW this computer has Office 2002 on it. Is that worse?

I'm short of cash at the moment.

 

[goodfu]

I decided to take a chance and put it on the new computer. So far so good, but it is doing an install whenever I switch form 2010 to 2007.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

I decided to take a chance and put it on the new computer. So far so good, but it is doing an install whenever I switch form 2010 to 2007.

if it's doing that, it probably has to!

it's better to stick with one or the other if you can, I think.

 

[goodfu]

Does yours do that when you go from 2010 to 2007?

 

[Galaxiom]

A good way to work with two physical computers and only one console is using VNC (Virtual Network Computer). The two computers are connected by the LAN.

It displays the view of the second computer inside a window on the first. When the window is active the keyboard and mouse are working on that computer.

There are several free versions. I have used RealVNC and currently use UltraVNC.

 

[Mr. B]

Getting the "install" when switching from 2007 to 2010 or from 2010 t0 2007 is normal and does not (or at least has not for me) cause any problems. This is normal. Just takes a few minutes.

 

[Banana]

if it's doing that, it probably has to!

it's better to stick with one or the other if you can, I think.

This is especially true with 2007/2010 now that there's actually no such thing as "2010 ACCDB file format" - both versions use same 2007 ACCDB file format but there already has been reports of 2010 breaking the files and making it inaccessible to 2007 - ideally, it'd just have blocked 2007 from opening 2010-only objects but there are cases where the file cannot even be opened, so I would agree that it's best to be consistent and keep to the version that you use in production.

 

[goodfu]

I've already done it. I'll probably just remove it when the 60-day trial is over.