How To Force Update Channel Changes To Take Effect

What a mess Microsoft’s Update Channel have made the Office Ecosystem!

I mean, really!

I avoid being on the cutting edge for a reason, because Microsoft’s updates are simply garbage. They typically cause more problems than they solve and as such I use the Monthly Enterprise Channel, or even slower.

That all being said, because of some work for a client, I needed to switch to the Monthly channel to get some of the recent new features. The problem being I can’t get office to update!

I made the switch in the admin account to the Current Channel hours ago

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Is It Time To Panic, Possibly!

I’ve seen a couple posts in the past few months, then Frank Ruperto made some blog comments on the subject and now, Mike Wolfe has posted an article regarding Microsoft stopping Windows and Windows Server support of older versions of Office.

I’m not going to copy Mike’s work, nor copy Microsoft’s Support Matrix, but I highly urge you to carefully review the following sources of information and start making plans as to how you want to move forward.

Windows and Office configuration support matrix
Windows Server end of support and Microsoft 365 Apps - Deploy Office
Provides admins using Microsoft 365 Apps with information about which versions of Windows Server are supported.
UPDATE: Office Apps WILL Run on Windows Server After October 2025
Earlier this year, Microsoft quietly reversed its decision to end support for running Office apps on Windows Server at the end of 2025.

 

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Generate An HTML Table String From An Access Table

HTML Document Icon

This is a continuation of my earlier post:

Generate an HTML Table String from a Query's Recordset
Below was my solution to export a query, or table, as a HTML Table string which then can be used in e-mails, to generate standalone HTML files, ...

That I have created because of my recent video on the subject:

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Identifying Excel Data Connections

Have you ever wanted to quickly list all the Data Connection used by an Excel Workbook, or series of Workbooks? Perhaps to check if a database is being accessed via external sources.

Below is one possible approach in which we simply pass the file path/name to a function which then lists all the connections.
 
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Access – My First Venture Into Dataverse Part 2

Dataverse Icon

So I’ve been playing around with Dataverse a little more today in a continuation of yesterday’s fiasco!  So if you haven’t already seen my previous post, best start by reviewing:

Dataverse Icon
Access - My First Venture Into Dataverse
I had a new client for whom I thought Dataverse might be a perfect solution to their need. So I set out to give it a whirl and see if Dataverse could do the job, see if the hype and demo I had been shown by Microsoft lived up to their ‘promise’. The proverbial ‘kick…

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Below are my preliminary observations and my impressions may change with time and experience, but as of today, this was my impression of things.

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Access – My First Venture Into Dataverse

Dataverse Icon

I had a new client for whom I thought Dataverse might be a perfect solution to their need. So I set out to give it a whirl and see if Dataverse could do the job, see if the hype and demo I had been shown by Microsoft lived up to their ‘promise’. The proverbial ‘kick the tires’ as they say.

Warning
Prepare yourself for a lot of profanity!
 

The Database

I decide to export the database comprised of 25 tables to Dataverse.  The overall schema is very straightforward, nothing too fancy here.  Just mainly a series of related tables: clients, submissions, materials, trucks, …

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Sad News For The Access Community – Passing of Ken Getz

I was informed yesterday that Ken Getz passed away.

His books were, should I say, ARE instrumental in any Access developer’s learning path and career. His contributions can be seen everywhere, whether you know it, or not.

My very first book was his:

Access 97 Developers Handbook
Here's the book the Access community relies on! Packed with tips, tricks, secrets, undocumented features, and tons of reusable source code, this indispensable guide is your ticket to developing bulletproof applications. Learn how to build more efficient databases, design better user interfaces, develop client/server applications, and plan for interoperability. The companion CD includes all examples from the book, a library of reusable code, ready-to-use subroutines and user-interface objects, and great freeware and shareware utilities.

and I still use it to this day!  That’s how good it is.

I never had the pleasure of actually meeting the man, but from I’m told by other MVPs is that he truly was a remarkable and approachable individual.

RIP.

VBA – Cannot jump to ‘…’ because it is hidden

I was perusing some recent posts on access-programmers.co.uk a couple days ago and came across a post by Pat Hartman:

When I right-click to get to the definition, I get this error.
Where is Erl defined? When I right-click to get to the definition, I get this error.

I e-mailed Pat the following information and I thought this made good subject matter for a post to benefit all of you as well.

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AI, ChatGPT And This Blog

Why haven’t I started to use AI/ChatGPT… in my blog postings?

I’ve been recently asked a couple times about this issue and I wasn’t going to get into it originally, but since I’ve had multiple inquiries now, I guess it is time to state where I stand on the subject and my reasoning.

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