If you weren’t already aware, earlier this month both Windows 11 and Office 2021 were released.
I’ve been involved in a couple discussions regarding Office 2021 regarding what it offers and where we can get it.
What’s New in Access 2021?
If you want Microsoft’s promotional take on the question the take a look at What’s new in Access 2021.
If you want my take, I don’t see much to be running out there to buy a copy. Most of the new features have been pushed back, yet again in the Access Roadmap, and thus didn’t make the cut for this release. Those features that did make it into Access 2021 are less than impressive IMHO.
Where Can I Get a Copy of Office 2021?
One of the most incomprehensible aspects of of Microsoft releasing any Perpetual version of Office is the fact that you can never locate it on Microsoft’s site! Then again, all Microsoft wants to promote is MS365 (previously Office365) so that all you can find, even when you do go to a 2021 page there’s more content about MS365 than the actual product you are there to review!
Below are a few links I managed to locate to help someone in a Access forum:
- Office Home & Student 2021 => Access is not listed
- Office Home & Business 2021 => Access is not listed
- Office Professional 2021 => Access is listed
- Access – Standalone
Office 2021 Lifecycle
We know that Microsoft now gives a 5 years lifecycle to Office and after reviewing Office 2021 – Microsoft Lifecycle we know that Office will be officially released on October 5th, 2021 and stop receiving support as of October 13th, 2026. The end of support does not mean it will stop working, but you will no longer receive updates and there are no guarantees regarding compatibility, etc …
Office 2021 Bitness
According to what I could find, Office 2021 still comes in both 32 and 64-bit installations and I base this statement on the following
which was taken from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/office-professional-2021/CFQ7TTC0HHJ9?activetab=pivot:faqtab
Remarkably, Microsoft seems to have flipped, again, and is once again recommending installing the 32-bit version of Office 2021!
… we recommend that you install the 32-bit version of Office, because it is more compatible with the applications and add-ins that work with Office … — Microsoft
i really feel microsoft do not care about access.
in 10 years they improved what a company could improve in 6 month
i am so astonished looking at Windev , that was inspired by access but allow in 3 min to make an app with a database of shop, gps location, publish the app in android or windows and launch it with the possibility to find all the shop in a radius of x km around you! you can youtube it.
i spent 21 years using access , but i feel microsoft do not care …sad
For instance i can not believe all the click we got to make to just make a drop down menu that propose the content of its own field.. or even if you want to drop a field in a form, you need to find it with the elevator, you can not search by typing a part of the name field..
worst : in creation mode, all the time you need to do zoom then change the police to see something in a terrible small txt box
sad sad sad
people like you ,,, that are sharing their genius , are what made me stay … you are the real value of access … the mvp and independant programmers that are so generous
Microsoft has done a lot of flip and flopping. They start things, then do a 180 and kill it, think Web Databases for instance. They also start things, but never finish them, think Ribbon (no editor), think SQL View (no editor), think modern charts!, and so on…
I don’t know if it is a lack of a plan, poor leadership or sheer incompetence, but at the end of the day, IMHO, it makes a product that truly has not moved forward as is could/should have.
Back in the 80’s, Access was revolutionary! Instead of continuing to push forward and remain the leaders, Microsoft has sat on their laurels and several of their competitors have come out with far more impressive capabilities: True web based access, far superior charting, much better SQL editor, …
Even now, one of the biggest pushes we see from Microsoft is to use Dataverse (formerly CDS), but that means migrating your data to Databaverse and no longer use Access! Furthermore, by using Dataverse, we loose a large amount of control over the back-end and once you jump on that boat, good luck getting off should you not be happy. Then, beyond the push transfer the back-end to Dataverse, Microsoft is pushing PowerApps very hard. Yet again, this is a replacement of Access altogether, a new web based interface. So Microsoft’s 2 biggest offerings, right now, for the Access community both take you away from Access!
I was happy a short while ago to finally see the Access Team publish an official Access Road map. Sadly, even that enthusiasm was short lived as deadlines just keep getting pushed back, time and time again making the road map have no value! Oh what has been announced for 1-2 years now sounds amazing, but will any of it ever see the light?
I was thrilled when they finally came out with their “Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in Access” page. I thought we’d finally have a central place where we could find information about each bug. Sadly, that isn’t the case. Content isn’t updated, just look at the ‘inconsistent state’ bug which hasn’t been updated in over a year! Then they don’t make an entry for every bug. Bugs get removed. There is no means to report bugs on that page and don’t get me started on the ‘Feedback’ button! Even the most basic git repository has better bug management than the most used database in the world!
You also have to look at the way Microsoft has effectively created 2 classes of clients: MS365 (formerly Office 365) users and perpetual license users. MS365 keep getting updates, perpetual license users don’t! When you start segregating people, well enough said there.
In the meantime, bugs abound with every update it seems and things like the ‘inconsistent state/unrecognized format’ bug remains unfixed more than 3 years later. Furthermore, the most popular requests on uservoice were never done and now Microsoft has shut down the only public facing communication medium that we had (rather than fixing its deficiencies. Now there’s some user engagement. Spend a couple years getting people onboard, do little to nothing with all their contributions and finally shutdown the site altogether. That one way to make users feel listened to and engaged with the product!
If you are a regular user of forums, you will have no doubt noticed a sharp decline in everything related to Access. That too says a lot.
Then there’s the whole Access as a 3rd class citizen in the Office family. It is often not included in Microsoft’s site menus, not included in VSTO add-in choices, … If Microsoft gave it a fraction of the attention it gives Excel, … we would have a completely different story on our hands.
(Don’t get me started on Add-in development in Access! I’ve had a excellent add-in and no means to make it happen (I have all the code), even after speaking directly with the Access Dev Team! Yet, I can pop out an Excel version in a couple hours!!!)
I’ve been developing Access for over 20 years now and have shifted my primary business away from it in the past 3-4 years now.
Oh well, it’s not like Microsoft will listen to a word we say, not even me as an MVP! So you either accept it as it is or move to other platforms/languages where you see more openness, communication, evolution and respect of its user base.
So, Daniel, from someone who has has used your ideas and code to help me run my business; what is your favorite for an access replacement, given that I have an awful lot of Access code that I will need to migrate?
You have been a real star for me over the years and put quite simply, where you are going I want to follow. I suspect I am not alone in this quest.
Thanks for all your help, yours Nigel from the UK.
I’ve spent a considerable amount of time learning and honing my Web development skillsets and have basically moved over to developping using PHP. That set, I work with a framework such as Zend, CakePHP, Laravel, … which drastically reduce the amount of effort/time required to create solutions.
This is truly not for everyone as it is basically starting over from scratch as not much of your existing knowledge is transferable. You need to learn basic HTML, CSS, then get into JavaScript/jQuery to finally get into PHP. This is likely to be a 1-2 year learning curve to become truly proficient.
That said, I originally went down this avenue to help a client. After multiple MS365 (formely Office365) bugs that left their business unable to operate for several days, they had enough I wanted to get away from Microsoft completely and this was the avenue chosen. It was a painful learning curve, but now, I actually love it! The power of the web is amazing. I can pump out solutions at almost the same speed, some things are easier, others are more complex. The beauty is the solutions aren’t tied to any provider, can be migrated to another host in minutes, work on any device, fast and responsive, don’t get forcibly updated and broken, and esthetically web design offers a lot more options then Access does natively (some people do amazing things but it requires a lot of work and code).
Thanks Daniel for your answer, that could be the body of your article in reality 🙂
I have used access since 1998 … and still got 3 database running … one for contact manager ,the other one for small business inventory .
Since 1 month i m learning about “windev” that is basicully what acess should be in 2021
Windev exist in englsih , french and spanish.
And it allows in few minute to transfrom your database to an android app or a website.
Let know in case you search a bit on youtube to get an idea.
I’ve been an Access Developer since version 1.0. I created a full blown Order Processing/Inventory Control system for a client in 1994 on Windows 3. (I was shocked when they called me in 2006 to ask me to convert it to run on Windows 2000). But more and more I started using VB.net with SQL Server Compact Edition for the kind of things I would have previously used Access for namely systems for a single user or less than 10 Concurrent Users. The nice thing about SQL compact edition is that it is not a server architecture and runs “in process” with your app so no need for the hassle of installing a server app when distributing it to a client with no IT support. But although it is still available (last time I looked) Microsoft stopped supporting it long ago.
Lately I’ve found that Python combined with SQLite is a very good replacement for Access. Or if your database needs are beyond the capability of SQLite, then MySQL or Postgres work very well with it.
( Remarkably, Microsoft seems to have flipped, again, and is once again recommending installing the 32-bit version of Office )
Wow That is the best news yet.
I really wish the day would come that Microsoft would make Access a Standalone program not part of Office
like Fox Pro was.