Week in Review

Week in Review: January 24, 2026

Highlights include building smart combo boxes, modern on/off toggle slider controls, and a module for looking up Win API error names from error numbers.

Mike Wolfe

Jan 25, 2026 • 5 min read

Just Published

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

Articles

^{*Article descriptions generated by Claude-Opus-4.5 and Claude-Sonnet-4.5.}

John Mallinson (The VBA Help)
- AutoText - numeric and String expansions: VBE_Extras now supports C#-style numeric and string expansion shortcuts like ++, --, +=, and &= that auto-expand to executable VBA code.
- WinAPI error codes: Provides a VBA module with an Enum and function to programmatically retrieve Windows API error names from error numbers.
Jonathan Halder (Access JumpStart 2.0)
- Handling Application level errors in Access VBA: Explains how to use Err.Raise to trigger custom application-level error conditions in Access VBA.
- Need a jumpstart, and crazy queries: Discusses a complex Access query with multiple subqueries and VBA function calls, highlighting the challenges of maintaining convoluted SQL.
Daniel Pineault (DEVelopers HUT)
- When Tech Gremlins Take Over The Week My Sanity Clocked Out: Recounts a week of frustrating IT issues including OneDrive sync failures, Quick Assist errors, Outlook visibility problems, and LogMeIn disk space issues.
- How a File Download Took Down OneDrive (and Why Microsoft Allows It): Describes how downloading files with extremely long filenames caused OneDrive to silently fail while holding file locks.
- How to Terminate a Windows Process Using VBA (Shell, WMI, and API Methods): Compares three VBA methods for forcibly terminating Windows processes: Shell with TaskKill, WMI, and the Windows API.
Colin Riddington (Isladogs on Access)
- New Style Message Box: Part 2 - Using Eval: Explores how the Eval function with MsgBox creates both old and new style Access message boxes depending on whether optional HelpFile and Context arguments are included.
- AEU49: Using ADO Recordsets in Access: An upcoming Access Europe presentation by Chris Arnold comparing ADO recordsets with arrays, collections, dictionaries, and DAO recordsets, including practical demonstrations of connected and disconnected in-memory ADO recordsets.
- Settings Form with On/Off Toggle Slider Controls: A demonstration of creating Windows-style toggle slider controls in Access forms without ActiveX, using custom buttons to read and update settings table values.
- New Style Message Box: Part 1 - Using Wizhook: How to leverage the undocumented Wizhook object's WizMsgBox function to create colorful, modern-style message boxes in Access that match Microsoft's new UI design with Unicode support and theme awareness.
Mike Wolfe (NoLongerSet)
- twinBASIC+AI in Access Development with Mike Wolfe: A comprehensive DevCon Vienna presentation covering twinBASIC's progress toward 1.0 release and practical strategies for leveraging AI tools like Claude and GPT-4o in Access development workflows.
- Throwback Thursday: January 22, 2026: A weekly feature revisiting standout articles on handling "untrappable" Access errors using the Form Error event.

Videos‌

Richard Rost (YouTube channel)
- Security Myth (41:45): The Microsoft Access Security Myth: Can You Really Secure or Hide Tables From Users? (QQ #76)
- Smart Combo Boxes, Part 1 (14:31): How to Build Smart Combo Boxes in Microsoft Access That Load Faster
- Smart Combo Boxes, Part 2 (14:02): How to Build Smart Combo Boxes in Microsoft Access That Load Faster, Part 2
- File Drop, Part 1 (Teaser) (46): Access Developer Level 51, Lesson 7: How To Enable Drag And Drop File Uploads In Access VBA Forms
- File Drop, Part 2 (Teaser) (53): Access Developer Level 51, Lesson 8: Safely Store Dropped Files And Avoid Lockups
- Self-Cleaning Log (12:37): How To Create A Self Cleaning Log In Microsoft Access And Automatically Delete Old Records

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}^.

[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
[March 27, 2026] Access Day (in person in Redmond, WA): speakers TBA
[April 1, 2026] Peter Cole: Using vbWatchdog with Access
[April 16-17, 2026] Access DevCon Vienna (virtual): speakers TBA
[May 6, 2026] Tim Finch: Grid Lanes
[June 3, 2026] Kevin Bell: SQL Server Tips and Tricks for Access Developers
[September 2, 2026] John Mallinson: Working with the Windows API

Access Roadmap

There were no changes made to the roadmap between the Week in Review last week (2026-01-17) and this week (2026-01-24).

The roadmap was last updated October 15, 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.
DEC 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.

Development Priorities

"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.

The items listed below reflect Microsoft's order of priority and were published in the following Access Forever article, Microsoft's Plans for Access Oct '25 – March '26.

Continued focus on monthly issue fixes, security, customer-reported bugs, etc. to improve product quality, security, reliability, and relevance. Most of our engineering hours are spent here.
Large monitor support: Remove 22” limitation to support using Access on modern hardware.
Large monitor support: Enable zoom slider magnification for forms.
Large monitor support: Modernize forms to work well on large monitors.
Time allowing, we’ll continue to work on remaining large monitor support features (support zoom in reports and design layout, automatic zooming, support multiple monitor scenarios).
If we still have time left over in the semester, we will begin work on Git integration for source code management in Access. (Spec is in progress. We will likely roll this out in phases also beginning the second half of 2026.)

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

Upcoming End-of-Life Dates

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

2024

~~[JUL 09]~~ SQL Server 2014

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)