Week in Review: August 23, 2025

Just Published

^{This section includes videos, articles, and (occasionally) open-source project updates from the past 7 days.}

Articles

^{*Article descriptions generated by Claude-Sonnet-4.}

Access Forever
- Application Manages Quotes in the Construction Industry, by Bernd Siebelist (adapted for AFo by Karl Donaubauer): A comprehensive Access application that integrates email processing, SAP connectivity, and custom design features to manage construction industry quotations, increasing daily inquiry processing from 20 to nearly 100.
The UKAUG Blog
- Talk and Chat August 2025 -- Graph API: Materials and video from a UK Access User Group session covering the implementation and use of Microsoft Graph API within Access applications.
Marcus Dieterle (LinkedIn Articles)
- Developers App Helpers - part 1: A collection of VBA functions for creating desktop shortcuts, managing trusted locations, and dynamically controlling Access application properties to make databases appear more professional and app-like.
John Mallinson (The VBA Help)
- Automatically add Windows API declaration(s): VBE_Extras functionality that helps identify and automatically add Windows API declarations to VBA code from a database of over 1,700 functions, 400+ types, and 9,000+ constants.
- Using 'F1' to view Windows API web pages: VBE_Extras extends the F1 key functionality to open Microsoft documentation web pages for Windows API functions, types, enums, and constants directly from the VBA editor.
- Testing the state of a key using the GetKeyState Windows API Function: Demonstrates how to use the GetKeyState Windows API function to check if keys like Shift, Ctrl, Alt, Caps Lock, and Num Lock are currently pressed or toggled.
- Get and set the active printer ... and list all available printers: Shows how to use GetDefaultPrinter, SetDefaultPrinter, and EnumPrinters Windows API functions to manage and list system printers in VBA.
Jonathan Halder (Access JumpStart 2.0)
- Access Tip: How to Break into Your Code at Exactly the Right Moment: Shows how to use VBA Watch functionality to break into code execution at specific conditions, such as when a recordset reaches a particular record ID.
- TDD in Access: Separating Logic from Forms for Cleaner Tests: Demonstrates how to decouple form-dependent functions from UI controls by using custom types to enable faster, more efficient unit testing.
- Access Date Filtering: Between vs. >= and < Explained: Explains why using >= and < operators is safer than BETWEEN for date range filtering when dealing with time components in Access databases.
- What Happens When You Press Ctrl-A in an Access Text Box?: Explores the unexpected behavior of Ctrl-A in Access text boxes and provides alternative methods and VBA solutions for selecting all text.
Daniel Pineault (DEVelopers HUT)
- How to Improve Loading and Performance of Large Excel Files: Practical strategies to optimize Excel workbook performance including using binary format, manual calculations, and minimizing volatile functions.
- Dell's New Laptop Shipping with Windows 11's Greatest Hits of Bugs: A frustrating experience setting up a new Dell laptop reveals Windows 11's inconsistent language settings, problematic Edge launch, and Office installation issues.
- Oracle's VirtualBox the Mortal Enemy Microsoft Windows and Brave: VirtualBox appears to cause intermittent freezing and copy/paste failures in Brave browser and Windows, with no consistent solution found.
Colin Riddington (Isladogs on Access)
- 32 to 64-bit Conversion - Page 1 (of 5) (UPDATED): A comprehensive guide covering the main issues developers face when ensuring Access applications work in both 32-bit and 64-bit environments, including API declarations, ActiveX controls, and ACCDE file compatibility.
- New features in the VBE_Extras add-in: An overview of recent enhancements to the VBE_Extras add-in for Office applications, highlighting features like HTML code copying, automated API declaration insertion, and extended F1 help functionality.
- Export Objects to HTML Encoding Issues: Documents recent issues in Access where exporting objects to HTML with formatting causes excessive encoding of all data and data scrambling errors, particularly affecting versions from 2506 onwards.
Mike Wolfe (NoLongerSet)
- Access Add-in Helper with Geoffrey L. Griffith: Geoffrey L. Griffith demonstrates two custom tools that automate the complex process of building Access add-ins and editing database properties.
- Throwback Thursday: August 21, 2025: A weekly roundup highlighting past articles about Microsoft Access's role in validating business processes before investing in custom software development.

Videos‌

George Hepworth (YouTube channel)
- From Access to PowerApps: Replicating Northwind: A series from one of the core team members of the Northwind 2.0 template redesign project.
  - Interface Design -- Fixed vs Floating Add Rows (07:09)
Richard Rost (YouTube channel)
- Quick Queries #54 (19:52): Viewing Users in a Split Database, Merge Columns in Combo Box
- Microsoft Access Fitness Database:
  - Part 24 (29:21): Building a Food Log Form and Supporting Query
  - Part 25 (18:14): Filter Food Log Records by Date with Navigation Buttons
  - Part 26 (17:02): Custom Time Entry in a Bound Date Field with Validation
  - Part 27 (18:01): Display & Edit Time Portion Only of a DateTime Field

New to Me

^{This section includes content I discovered this week that has been around for a while.}

No, AI is not Making Engineers 10x as Productive

Curing Your AI 10x Engineer Imposter Syndrome

Upcoming Access User Group Events

^{NOTE: Only English-language user group meetings with scheduled guest speakers or topics are listed. For a complete list of upcoming events, visit the}^{Access User Group event calendar}^{. Not all links below include the start time and time zone. For that information, check out this handy reference guide from Access MVP Maria Barnes over at AccessForever.org:}^{Access User Groups 2025}^.

[August 26, 2025] Maria Barnes: Update on calling Microsoft Graph API from VBA
[September 03, 2025] Adam Waller: Version Control for the Sole Developer – Why it Matters
[September 04, 2025] Greg Regan: Updated Control Tip Text
[September 30, 2025] Crystal Long & Adrian Bell: Using Custom and Built-in Functions in Expressions
[October 01, 2025] Marcus Dieterle: High impact – Custom dialogs and mini-notifications
[October 28, 2025] Colin Riddington: A Masterclass in Access Security (JUST ADDED)
[November 05, 2025] Aleksander Wojtasz: Topic TBD
[December 03, 2025] Adolph Dupré: Topic TBD
[January 07, 2026] Ynte Jan Kundersma: Using Power Automate with Office Apps
[March 04, 2026] Chris Arnold: Using Disconnected (In-Memory) ADO Recordsets in Access

Access Roadmap

There were no changes made to the roadmap between the Week in Review last week (2025-08-16) and this week (2025-08-23).

The roadmap was last updated the week of August 9, 2025. The development priorities were last updated at the German-language AEK conference on October 20, 2024.

Listed below is a snapshot of the official Access Roadmap.

"In Development", "Rolling Out", and "Launched" are Microsoft terms that I pulled straight from the public roadmap.

"Development Priorities" do not appear on the Access Roadmap. Instead, they get updated from time to time in official Access blog posts or Access engineering team presentations. I'll include a link to the source of the current development priorities as they get updated.

Development Priorities

The items listed below reflect Microsoft's order of priority and were published in the following article, Microsoft's Plans for Access Oct '24 – March '25.

The items are listed in priority order according to Principal Engineering Manager Dale Rector. The "Expected Benefit" of each feature is shown in italics after the description of the feature itself.

New priorities added since the previous set of priorities are shown in bold below.

Continued Focus on Monthly Issue Fixes: (Monthly Issue Fix Blog) Improved product quality and reliability
Large monitor support for forms: Improved support of Access on the latest hardware
Integrated source control: Simplifying the process of building mission critical Access solutions

Special thanks to Karl Donaubauer for posting the updated priorities at AccessForever.org.

In Development

SEP 2025: Add zoom slider magnification to Microsoft Access: Access will add magnification slider (10% to 500%) in lower right of the application, similar to the feature in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. It will also be keyboard accessible and available on the ribbon.
SEP 2025: Modernize Access Forms and Reports to work well on Large Format Monitors: Remove the 22-inch size limit and modernize Access forms and reports work well on large format monitors and provide responsive behavior for different form factors.

Rolling Out

None listed.

Launched

NOTE: Dates listed are rollout start dates.

SEP 2024: Integrate Monaco framework to improve SQL editor capabilities: The Monaco Editor is the fully featured code editor from VS Code with standard IDE functionality such as syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, and autocomplete.

Upcoming End-of-Life Dates

Here are the key end-of-life dates Access developers should track:

2029

[JAN 09] Windows Server 2019
[OCT 09] Access 2024 | Outlook 2024
[OCT 09 (or later)] Classic Outlook
- See "Edit 8/12/2024" at top of this article for official clarification that "both perpetual and subscription [i.e., MS 365] versions of Outlook will be supported until 2029"
- Support for Classic Outlook is guaranteed at least through 9 Oct 2029; it may be extended beyond this date

2030

[JAN 08] SQL Server 2019

2031

[OCT 14] Windows Server 2022

2033

[JAN 11] SQL Server 2022

2034

[OCT 10] Windows Server 2025

Ongoing

Microsoft 365 (with subscription)

Date TBD

Complete removal of VBScript from Windows OS (Microsoft Announces the Death of VBScript)