Problem installing Access 2000 runtime on Windows 7 (1 Viewer)

[AccessJay]

In the past, I have successfully deployed an Access 2000 runtime application on Windows 2000 and XP. I use Wise Installer System (v9) and a Sagekey script to package and deploy my application. This has worked great until I tried to install and run my project tracking (ProjTrak) application on a Windows 7 machine which has Office 2010 Professional Plus, i.e., the Full version of Access 2010 present.

On the Windows 7 machine, running the setup.exe creates the registry keys, odbc connection, desktop short-cut and copies the application files and Access 2000 runtime files to the expected locations:

Runtime files: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\ART
Application: C:\Program Files (x86)\ProjTrak

However, when we attempt to start this app via its desktop short-cut, we get the error message "This application must be installed to run. Please run Setup from the location where you originally installed the application." My guess is this message is referring to the Access 2000 runtime. I have tried setting XP compatibility mode on the MSACCESS.EXE in the ART folder and specifying that it run with Admin privs, but still get the same message. I am stumped and hoping others have seen this and have an answer or suggestions.

 

[AccessJay]

Based on the suggestions of several folks, I changed the install script to copy the user's application files (the Access 2000 MDE and other writeable files) to a C:\Data\Test folder. Unfortunately, still get error message: "This application must be installed to run. Please run Setup from the location where you originally installed the application."

Note our Shortcut Target is: C:\Data\Test\Test.cmd
and Test.cmd only has this command:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\ART\Office\MSACCESS.EXE" /excl /runtime /profile "Test" /wrkgrp "C:\Data\Test\system.mdw" "C:\Data\Test\test.mde"

Based on our failed results on a 64-bit Win 7 Pro SP1 box, I'm pretty sure now we need to migrate this app to a newer flavor of Access. Would you first upgrade your Access 2000 source code (forms, reports, modules) to Access 2003, create a 2003 MDE and distribute that with the 2003 runtime (to get this app working in the near-term on 64-bit Win 7), or would you skip 2003 and target 2007 instead?

 

[John.Woody]

Why not go all the way to 2010. Check your code and make sure you remove any depreciated features, make your own ribbon(s). The runtime package is free to download and you should be future proofed for longer

 

[AccessJay]

I would like to go all the way to 2010 but that will have to wait until I have more time to replace depreciated features, make own ribbon, etc. I'm currently testing our upgrade to 2003 MDB/MDE with Access 2010 runtime. The runtime can open the MDB just fine but for the MDE, it complains about a window being hidden by a macro which I have to investigate and fix.

Related to this, I'm curious to know if there is any difference/advantage to creating a 2003 MDE from a 2003 MDB with Tools, Make MDE in Access 2003 or File, Publish As in Access 2010.

 

[DocRabbit]

I think your problem here is in the path your shortcut references. You show it as just plain "Program Files/..", try changing it to "Program Files (x86)/.." in the relative places.

Another side note, if your user has a full copy of Access already installed, I usually change the path for the runtime 2000 install to something like "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office2000\..." so that the 2 do not introduce conflicts.

 

[AccessJay]

DocRabbit -

Thanks for noticing that mistake in my paths as listed in my prior post. Back then, I also did try with "Program Files (x86)" in the relative places but it did not solve the problem which was trying to get the Access 2000 runtime to "run" under Windows 7. Rather than continuing to hack-out a solution by moving my application files to a non-program files directory like c:\data\... and fiddling with file permissions (Run as Administrator) and compatiblity mode level (Windows XP, SP 2) options for short-cuts and other files, I bowed in Microsoft's direction and upgraded this front-end app to Access 2010 runtime. I was lucky in that I had a very simple, screen-driven user interface, so I only had to convert a few items/macros made obsolete by the "new" Ribbon in Access 2010.

- AccessJay