Thanks to a reader of Jon’s Access List, Xevi from Girona in Spain, I received a converted version of the Access 97 Data Scrambler database. The reader used Access 2010 to update the database to a format that could be read by the most recent versions of Access, which is exclusively what I use (well the “stable” channel of Office 365 updates. Note stable in quotes!)

This is because all my current customers are using the stable channel as well for their Office 365 updates.

But what if I wanted to test my app on the most recent channel? Or what if like in this case, a customer presents me with an ancient Access database format the current Access no longer reads? Or what if I want to test the 32-bit version of Access and the 64-bit version of Access for my existing app?

All of these require a different version of Access. What are my options?

1. Install different runtime versions of Access on one computer for all the versions that I want to test.
   • Eh, bad on a number of fronts. Unless I am developing my apps to run in runtime versions, this does not match my customer’s environment.
   • Although the two benefits here are that I can install multiple runtime versions of Access on a single machine and none of them require licensing.
   • However, I would not want to install the same runtime version of Access as the full version of Access on the machine. Ugh!
2. Install multiple virtual machines locally.
   • This is a great solution in my opinion and allows you to install many versions of Access for testing and compatibility purposes. It allows you to have a single environment for each customer environment you want to be able to test in.
   • Downside – Licensing: Each virtual machine will require you license each OS and each version of Office you need to install.
   • Downside – VM Software: Microsoft’s Hyper-V to install VMs will require hardware that supports it and you need to make sure you have a version of Windows that will support it. This typically requires at least the Professional version of the OS (Windows 10 or 11 Professional) OR you can purchase VMWare or use an Opensource VM Machine like Oracle VirtualBox, but depending on your hardware and host OS, these may not run very well.
3. Purchase multiple virtual machines from online services.
   • In this case I’m thinking of Azure. Azure allows you to purchase virtual desktops and virtual machines and pay for them only as you use them. This isn’t too bad of an approach as it allows you to only pay for what you use and you can create and delete virtual environments as you need them.
   • In this case, cost is pretty much unknown and ends up depending on how much you use the systems. You may also run into the licensing issues here.
4. Purchase and build multiple physical systems at your development location.
   • You may already have old computers with old versions of Access and old OSes you just never upgraded.
   • In my case I’ve upgraded my OS licenses (for free) over the years and so I don’t think my old Windows 7 license I purchase would still be valid. But if you purchase new hardware, it typically comes with a license for the OS. Maybe this would be a valid option for many people who still have older hardware.

Do you work with multiple versions of Access? How do you do it? Do you use one of the approaches above, or do you do something else?