Week in Review: October 4, 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
- Features, Bugs, Changes – Sep 2025, by Karl Donaubauer: Monthly overview covering RegExp integration in VBA, roadmap delays, bug reports, and upcoming Access conferences.
Marcus Dieterle (LinkedIn Articles)
- Update time for Custom-Dialogs 💥: New features for automatically replacing MsgBox and InputBox with modern custom dialogs and improving WebBrowser control performance.
Jonathan Halder (Access JumpStart 2.0)
- Frustrating 64-bit ACCDE failure fix found: Solution for 64-bit Access crashes when creating ACCDE files caused by add-in references.
- Building Smarter Dropdowns in Access with Section Headers and De-Duping: Technique for creating dropdown lists with section headers and automatic de-duplication across multiple data sources.
Daniel Pineault (DEVelopers HUT)
- Microsoft Office Icons Get a Modern Refresh: Microsoft Office apps receive updated icons with cleaner, more contemporary designs while retaining signature colors.
- Microsoft Access Roadmap Misses Again: Large Format Monitor Modernization Delayed?: Critical commentary on Microsoft's failure to deliver promised Access features for large monitors by the September 2025 roadmap deadline.
Colin Riddington (Isladogs on Access)
- Small Change in Sharepoint - Not Many Affected?: Microsoft has retired SharePoint List Options for new and existing Access web apps, though few users are likely affected by this change.
- AEU45: Using Power Automate with Office Apps: A comprehensive guide demonstrating how to use Power Automate to create automated workflows with Access and other Office applications.
- What's Up with Aptos?: An examination of the Aptos font that replaced Calibri as Office's default in 2023, including rendering issues and how to change default font settings.
- Access Bug Summary - Sept 2025: A monthly roundup of Access bugs reported in September 2025, including ADO/ADOX crashes, missing context menu items, and calculated field errors.
Crystal Long (Ms Access Gurus | Access Access Newsletter)
- VBA Function Reference: A comprehensive reference listing VBA functions with their syntax, return types, categories, and links to Microsoft documentation.
Mike Wolfe (NoLongerSet)
- Throwback Thursday: October 2, 2025: A collection of articles exploring subtle but important differences in VBA and Access syntax, including concatenation operators, control references, and null handling.

Videos‌

Richard Rost (YouTube channel)
- Quick Queries #60 (28:14): The #1 Mistake People Make with Null in Microsoft Access (Null Ain't Null)
- Chatbot with Memory (28:31): How to Make an OpenAI Chatbot in Microsoft Access That Remembers Conversations
- Microsoft Access Fitness Database:
  - Part 42 (14:21): Solve Duplicate ID Problem in a UNIONed Combo Box in Microsoft Access
  - Part 43 (13:12): Use a Recordset Loop to Add Multiple Items to a Log Table in Microsoft Access
  - Part 44 (13:38): Fix Random Log Order by Adding a Seconds Offset in Microsoft Access
Daniel Pineault (YouTube channel)
- Adding Attachments To Your Microsoft Access Database (14:32)
David Britz [David's Database and Coding Channel] (YouTube channel)
- Access Series Episode 1 (37:33)
- Access Series Episode 2 (29:03)
- Access Series Episode 3 (20:02)
- Access Series Episode 4 (22:32)
- Access Series Episode 5 (24:47)
- Video Demo - Client Matching App (07:27)

New to Me

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

Nothing new this week.

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}^.

[October 28, 2025] Colin Riddington: A Masterclass in Access Security
[November 5, 2025] Ynte Jan Kundersma: Using Power Automate with Office Apps
[December 03, 2025] Adolph Dupré: Using Twilio for Texting from Access
[February 04, 2026] Aleksander Wojtasz: Creating an Advanced Data Grid Integrated with Access
[March 04, 2026] Chris Arnold: Using Disconnected (In-Memory) ADO Recordsets in Access

*NOTE: Access User Group event calendar was not displaying any events at publication time; events listed above are carried forward from last week's article.

Access Roadmap

There were no changes made to the roadmap between the Week in Review last week (2025-09-27) and this week (2025-10-04).

The roadmap was last updated September 24, 2025.

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. Dates listed are "rollout start" dates.

In Development

OCT 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

None listed.

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)