You might already have installed Access as part of the Microsoft Office suite. You'll generally only find SQL Server on developers' computers/servers or on production server machines.Īnother reason you might use Access instead of SQL Server is money. People are more likely to have Access on their desktop computer than SQL Server. You might need to email someone a copy of your database. One reason you might choose to use Access over SQL Server is for compatibility/sharing. Each user of the Access application would then receive his or her own copy of the front end file.Īccess is more suited for desktop use with a small number of users accessing it simultaneously. The linked tables in the front end point to the back end file. This means that the tables are in one file called the back end (typically stored on a shared network folder) and the application components (forms, reports, queries, code, macros, linked tables) are in another file called the front end.

If using an Access database solution in a multi-user scenario, the application should be 'split'. This capability is often a good fit for department solutions. Generally accepted limits are solutions with 1 GB or less of data (Access supports up to 2 GB) and performs quite well with 20 or fewer simultaneous connections (255 concurrent users are supported). The number of simultaneous users that can be supported depends on the amount of data, the tasks being performed, level of use, and application design. Microsoft Office Access, previously known as Microsoft Access, is a relational database management system from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. Post added at 11:42 - Previous post was at 11:33.

Unlike the regular version of Access, the runtime version allows users to use the Access application but they cannot use its design surfaces.

This allows people to create Access solutions and distribute it for use by non-Microsoft Access owners (similar to the way DLLs or EXEs are distributed). Microsoft offers a runtime version of Microsoft Access for download.

Microsoft office access runtime 2010