Weird Access Question

Question

I Have an MS Access Db that I built for a friend about 8 1/2 years ago. It now has a ton of important data, reports, and programming (important but crappy programming I will admit). I now need to revist this app and rewrite it in c#. But here is the catch, I no longer have access to MS Access (pun not intended -- well ok, it really was). And I dont want to download the trial version from MS because it is part of Office Professional and installing a trial of Professional will mess up my registered version of Small Buiness edt. So in effect, I would need to uninstall my version of office, install the trial, do what I need to do, then uninstall the trial and reinstall my version. Somewhere in that process, I am sure my computer would die.

So my question to the group would be, can you think of a way to extact the reports and forms from Access (data is easy) so I can continue the development in VS2008 and c#.

Answer 1

adding to kosoant answer

VMWare is not free (only the old version of the Virtual Server), but Virtual PC is, and you can then create a Windowx XP (or whatever CD you have... or even give Win7 a try) and install the trial... remember VPC does not support x64.

Virtual PC: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/

Windows 7 RC: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/

Microsoft Office 2007 (trial): http://us20.trymicrosoftoffice.com/default.aspx

Answer 2

Intall VMWare on your machine, then create a new virtual machine with the necessary software installed. That way your main system stays.

Answer 3

It will be far easier to find a friend with a version - any version - of Access installed and do what you need from there. It will take much less time, especially since there's code involved.