Access Roadmap Update

Microsoft updated the official Access roadmap at the end of October 2021.

Here–in chronological order–is what's new and upcoming for our favorite Office application:

Recently Added Features

ODBC Interface Support (without ACE Redistributable Engine)

General Availability: January 2021

If you have O365, or click-to-run versions of Access 2016/2019 Consumer installed, you will no longer need to install the ACE Redistributable to use the ACE ODBC provider.

DAO Interface Support (without ACE Redistributable Engine)

General Availability: January 2021

If you have O365, or click-to-run versions of Access 2016/2019 Consumer installed, you will no longer need to install the ACE Redistributable to use the ACE DAO provider.

Currently In Preview

Dataverse Connector

Preview: November 2021
General Availability: March 2022

We are providing a collaborative platform for you to integrate your data and applications into the cloud/mobile-based world through Dataverse while continuing to preserve the Access Desktop value. This opens a realm of opportunities to share and collaborate on your apps & data in our consistently growing Teams and Power Apps/Dataverse ecosystems.

Scheduled

New Microsoft Graph Data Connector

General Availability: March 2022

Link to or import from Microsoft Graph services to build Access applications that can leverage the smart contextual data stored in the Graph.

New (Modern) Web Browser Control (to support Chromium Edge)

General Availability: September 2022

Improve and increase the efficiency of your browsing capabilities through our Modern Web BrowserControl, which will support our new Chromium Edge browser.

Enabling Large Address Aware (LAA) for 32-Bit Access

General Availability: September 2022

32-bit Access will become Large Address Aware (LAA) to address 4G of memory, rather than 2G.

Read my article, Large Address Aware Flag, for more information.

SQL Monaco Editor

General Availability: December 2022

Use the embedded Monaco Editor, the same editor used for Visual Studio Code, in Access.

Here's to hoping Microsoft is able to hit a few of these estimates, especially since many of them have already been delayed by 6 -12 months (looking at you, Large Address Aware feature). In the meantime, we'll have to make do with creative workarounds and migrating to 64-bit wherever possible.

External references

Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365

The Microsoft 365 Roadmap lists updates that are currently planned for applicable subscribers. Check here for more information on the status of new features and updates.

Microsoft 365

The /LARGEADDRESSAWARE (LAA) flag - Remedy for out-of-memory errors

How to apply the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE (LAA) flag to the MsAccess.exe to get rid of out-of-memory and resources exceeded errors.

CodekabinettPhilipp Stiefel

Referenced articles

Office 2019 Runs in 64-bit Mode By Default. Here’s What That Means for VBA Developers

Through Office 2016, default installs used the 32-bit version of the software. Now that 64-bit is the default, it’s time to bite the bullet and convert your VBA code.

No Longer SetMike Wolfe

Large Address Aware Flag

Getting a lot of “Out of memory” errors in newer versions of Access? This trick can more than triple your available memory in 32-bit versions of Access.

No Longer SetMike Wolfe

Image by ErikaWittlieb from Pixabay

UPDATED [2021-11-16]: Added link to Large Address Aware Flag article.