1) $400? I beg to differ. A fully licensed version of XP developer runs about double that in most cases. The cheapest I could find it was at my college, only after the discounts and education discount.
2) You will not make an .exe from the developer edition. You can package your MDB with a runtime version of access that (if set up properly) will emulate an executable program. THIS IS NOT AN ACTUAL EXE.
If you REALLY need to make an actual exe that will work with your MBD, I recommend developing something with VB6 and linking it to your tables. The packaging wizard in VB will allow you to include the MDB within the installation process.