Microsoft ACE & Office compatibility issue

Question

Here is our situation:
We have a 32 bit VC++ application that operated both with:
- Access to store data via ADO
- Excel for result output via OLE Embedded and OLE Automation
Our application is in the market of imaging.
Because of the interest of our users to work with more & bigger images, we can't stay with a 32 bit application.
We started the migration to x64 but we have a problem:
1. Data access requires Microsoft ACE OLEDB provider x64
2. Most of our users run Excel 32 bits (Microsoft continue to recommend the use of Office 32 bits).
The problem is that the Microsoft ACE OLEDB provider x64 is not compatible with Office 32 bits.
Can you please confirm?
Is there a way to workaround, for example by using another x64 OLEDB provider that would not have any issue running on the same machine as Office 32 bits?
Or maybe this is a case where Microsoft would tell us to use the x64 version of Office.

Answer 1

Hi EddyDelpierre,
>>The problem is that the Microsoft ACE OLEDB provider x64 is not compatible with Office 32 bits. Can you please confirm?
Yes, the 64-bit Microsoft ACE driver cannot co-exist with 32-bit versions of Microsoft Office, you must use 64-bit Microsoft Office.
The relate article:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/farukcelik/archive/2010/06/04/accessing-excel-files-on-a-x64-machine.aspx
>>Is there a way to workaround, for example by using another x64 OLEDB provider that would not have any issue running on the same machine as Office 32 bits?
You could try the solution suggested by Applied Maths in this thread:
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/abf34eea-1029-429a-b88e-4671bffcee76/why-cant-32-and-64-bit-access-database-engine-aceoledb-dataproviders-coexist?forum=adodotnetdataproviders
As a reminder, the ADO.NET Managed Providers forum will be a better place for your question:
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?forum=adodotnetdataproviders
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