The State of Microsoft Access in 2025 with Maria Barnes

Mike Wolfe -

Wondering if Microsoft Access is still relevant in 2025? Spoiler alert: It's not just alive—it's actively being modernized with exciting new features targeting large monitors, zoom capabilities, and powerful SQL editing tools.

In this Access Lunchtime session from earlier this spring, Maria Barnes shared insights from both the Microsoft MVP Summit and Access DevCon conference. She covered the upcoming features on Microsoft's 365 Roadmap, demonstrated early previews of zoom functionality and extended form sizes, and detailed significant improvements to modern charts and the Monaco SQL editor. The presentation offers a comprehensive look at where Access is headed and what developers can expect in the coming months.

Whether you're a seasoned Access developer wondering about the platform's future or looking to leverage new capabilities for better user experiences, this summary provides a clear roadmap of what's coming and why it matters for your development work.

Access Is Alive and Being Actively Developed

Current State

  • Microsoft continues active development of Access
  • Recent updates presented at MVP Summit and Access DevCon
  • New features appearing on Microsoft 365 Roadmap
  • Access team regularly publishing blog posts about improvements

Common Misconceptions

  • Despite skepticism from other IT professionals, Access remains widely used
  • Platform continues to receive significant feature enhancements
  • Microsoft committed to modernizing the application

Major Upcoming Features

[Editor's note: Dates below have been updated from the video to reflect current deployment estimates from Microsoft.]

Zoom Slider (Rolling Out October 2025)

  • Magnification slider in lower right corner (similar to other Office apps)
  • Support for 10% to 500% magnification
  • Initial release focuses on forms in Form View mode
  • Will magnify control sizes on forms
  • Future support planned for:
    • Report view
    • Datasheet view
    • Design view
    • Continuous forms

Key Benefits:

  • Accessibility improvements for users with visual needs
  • Better experience across different monitor sizes
  • Maintains scroll bar functionality while zoomed
  • Expected to support VBA detection and control in future updates

Current Limitations:

  • Sub-forms not yet fully supported in initial release
  • Some fit and finish issues still being addressed
  • Tab controls and navigation controls largely working but not fully demonstrated

Large Format Monitor Support (Rolling Out December 2025)

  • Removes 22-inch form size limit
  • Modernizes forms and reports for larger monitors
  • Provides responsive behavior for different form factors

Technical Implementation:

  • New VBA properties for positioning (e.g., "LeftLarge", "TopLarge")
  • Original properties (Left, Top, Width, Height) remain unchanged to prevent breaking existing code
  • Access team working to make transition as transparent as possible
  • Forms can now extend beyond 22 inches (demo showed 31.5 inch forms)

Backward Compatibility:

  • Older Access versions likely won't open oversized forms
  • New properties needed because existing TWIP properties are 16-bit values
  • Team designing to avoid breaking existing VBA code

Potential Use Cases:

  • Single forms with different "pages" accessed by scrolling
  • Alternative to tab controls or swapping subforms
  • May offer performance benefits for complex interfaces

Modern Charts Enhancements

New Features Already Released

  • New Chart Type: Pareto charts
    • Bar chart displaying data in descending order
    • Includes cumulative percentage line
    • Named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto

Improvements to Existing Charts

  • Enhanced grid lines with different types and colors
  • Improved contrast between grid line types
  • Sort order functionality (especially useful for funnel charts)
  • Better data visualization consistency

Expanded VBA Support

The Access team has significantly expanded programmatic control:

  • Chart type
  • Grid line type and color
  • Sort order
  • Line weight
  • Marker points
  • Data label display format and position
  • Dash type
  • Display box
  • Whisker data points
  • Mean markers
  • Pareto line color
  • Word cloud shapes and orientation

Version Compatibility:

  • Modern charts supported in Access 2024 and possibly 2021
  • Attempting to use new VBA methods in non-365 versions produces helpful error message
  • Error directs users to update VBA for compatibility

Community Contributions

  • Colin Riddington instrumental in providing feedback to Access team
  • Created tools for interactive chart property exploration
  • Published comprehensive articles on modern charts code

Monaco SQL Editor Improvements

Previously Released Fixes (2501-2503)

  • Multiple bug fixes addressing functionality issues
  • Improved save behavior
  • F1 help support based on current selection

Major Improvements Coming Soon

Performance Enhancements:

  • Much faster loading time
  • Web browser component loads once instead of per-query-open
  • Idle time initialization—browser loads in background when Access opens
  • Editor appears instantaneous when needed

Partial Query Execution:

  • Select and run portions of SQL queries
  • Similar to SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) functionality
  • Powerful debugging capability
  • Caution needed to avoid executing dangerous partial statements (e.g., DELETE without WHERE clause)

SQL Formatting:

  • Keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+K) for pretty formatting
  • Uses open-source SQL formatter library
  • May save formatted SQL (demonstrated in preview but not confirmed by Access team)
  • Automatic separation of parameters onto new lines

Source Control Integration (Future)

  • GitHub integration planned
  • Similar to older Visual Source Safe model but modernized
  • Currently in early design phase
  • Expected by end of 2025

Roadmap and Release Patterns

Understanding Microsoft 365 Roadmap

  • Features must meet specific criteria to appear:
    • 90% confidence in delivery
    • Must be significant improvements
    • Release within 3-4 months maximum
    • Cannot be extensions of existing features

What Won't Appear on Roadmap

  • Continued improvements to existing features (like Monaco SQL editor)
  • Longer-term development items
  • Features still in early planning stages

Feature Availability

  • New features initially available in Access 365 only
  • May eventually appear in perpetual versions
  • Access 2024 frozen before fall 2023 releases
    • Monaco SQL editor improvements not included
    • Modern chart enhancements not included

Alternative Information Sources

  • Microsoft Tech Community blog posts
    • Version 2501, 2502, and 2503 updates documented
    • Detailed feature and bug fix information
  • Access team presentations at DevCon and MVP Summit
  • Community articles and demonstrations

Other Items in Development

Code Signing via Command Line

  • Ability to sign databases from command line (new)
  • ACCDB signing capability existed since 2022 (not new)
  • Automatic certificate reapplication when queries modified and saved (added January 2023)
  • Requires certificate token plugged in or certificate on hard drive
  • Useful for batch operations on multiple databases

New Outlook Integration

  • Access team waiting on Outlook team for new technology
  • Current object model replacement needed
  • Access team not actively developing but pressuring Outlook team
  • Multiple workarounds documented on AccessForever.org:
    • Graph API implementation
    • Alternative email sending methods
    • Calendar integration options

Community Resources and Events

Access User Groups

  • Access Lunchtime (US-based, daytime)
    • Meetings resume in May (last Tuesday)
    • Summer break (June-July)
    • Returns August (last Tuesday)
  • Access Europe (Colin Riddington)
    • First Wednesday of each month
    • Same time as Access Lunchtime but different day
    • High-quality, well-researched presentations
  • Access Pacific (George Hepworth)
    • Evening Pacific time
    • Different timezone accommodation
    • Recent focus on modernizing Northwind templates
  • Access Australia (Kent Ismert)
    • Serves Australian timezone

Recording Availability

  • All presentations recorded and available on YouTube
  • Allows viewing at convenient times across timezones

AccessForever.org Showcase

  • New section featuring Access applications
  • Two applications currently showcased
  • Monthly publication schedule
  • Highlights diverse Access capabilities:
    • Commercial applications
    • Hybrid solutions (SharePoint, Power Apps)
    • Charity and non-profit uses
  • Application submission available for developers

Conclusion

Microsoft Access is not only alive but thriving with significant modernization efforts underway.

The upcoming zoom functionality and large monitor support address long-standing pain points for developers working across different screen resolutions and sizes. Combined with ongoing improvements to modern charts and the Monaco SQL editor, these updates demonstrate Microsoft's commitment to keeping Access relevant and powerful for professional development.

The active user group community and regular feature releases suggest a bright future for the platform, with the Access team responsive to developer feedback and focused on practical, impactful improvements.

Recording

The full recording is available on YouTube:

Join Live!

Want to get even more out of these presentations? Join the live Access User Group events! The next upcoming events are listed on the AUG Event Calendar.

Attending live gives you the opportunity to:

  • Interact directly with presenters during Q&A sessions
  • Network with other Access developers
  • Share your own experiences and challenges
  • Get immediate answers to your specific questions
  • Participate in group discussions

With multiple user groups across different time zones (and languages!), you're sure to find a meeting time that works for your schedule.

Acknowledgements

  • Base cover image generated by FLUX-schnell
  • Initial draft generated by Claude-Sonnet-4.5