Week in Review

Week in Review: July 25, 2026

Highlights include a class module for docking Access forms, a file/folder operations module with 80+ functions, and a talk on managing a team of AI agents.

Mike Wolfe

• 5 min read
Week in Review: July 25, 2026

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-4.5. (Articles retrieved Thursday, July 23; articles posted after that date will appear in next week's article.)

  • The UKAUG Blog
    • Autumn 2026 conference: The UK Access User Group announces its autumn 2026 conference at the Phoenix venue in London, featuring Access MVPs Mike Wolfe and Alessandro Grimaldi presenting on source control, AI integration, SQL stored procedures, VBA, and advanced UI design techniques.
  • Marcus Dieterle (LinkedIn Articles)
  • Colin Riddington (Isladogs on Access)
    • Dock Forms to the Access Window: Colin Riddington demonstrates how to position Access forms at specific locations within the Access application window using API calls and a class module to retrieve window dimensions in twips.
    • NEW - Cascading Combo boxes and listboxes: Access version 2608 introduces LinkMasterFields and LinkChildFields properties for combo boxes and list boxes, enabling code-free cascading filters across single, continuous, datasheet, and split forms.
    • NEW - Big Forms and Reports for Modern Monitors: Access removes the 22.75-inch form width limit in version 2606, supporting dimensions up to approximately 236,715 cm using new long integer properties for Width, Height, Left, and Top.
    • Access Bug Summary - July 2026 (UPDATED): Colin Riddington documents July 2026 Access bugs affecting insider channel builds, including MSXML performance issues, Erl function inconsistencies in 64-bit, cascading listbox scrollbar problems, and form control positioning errors when opening v2608 forms in older versions.
  • Mike Wolfe (NoLongerSet)
    • Throwback Thursday: July 23, 2026: Mike Wolfe revisits past articles on reducing risks in complex database migrations and avoiding "big bang" cutovers.
    • twinBASIC Update: July 21, 2026: Wayne Phillips previews upcoming Picture and Caption properties for ProgressBar controls and confirms plans for a native RegEx library post-v1.0, while the community showcases WebView2 applications and discusses ActiveX Designer support timelines.

Videos

GitHub Projects

Changelog summary generated by Claude Opus 4.8.

MCP-Access After the security-hardening sprint of v0.7.50/v0.7.51, MCP-Access shifted its attention from what it refuses to run to how carefully it edits. The headline in v0.7.52 (July 21) is a new access_vbe_check_syntax tool that structurally validates a VBA project in place — catching unbalanced If/For/Do/While/Select/With/Type/Enum blocks and misplaced Option statements without decompiling or discarding a line of code. Patching got safer too: access_vbe_patch_proc is now atomic by default, so a single failed anchor match leaves the module untouched rather than half-rewritten, and a new require_unique parameter refuses any patch that would land in more than one place. Rounding it out, anchor matching went case-insensitive to match VBA's own semantics, the (Declarations) section became directly addressable, and a batch of line-counting fixes standardized on CountOfLines to kill off-by-one errors and modal-dialog snags.

The theme is edit with confidence: v0.7.52 makes MCP-Access check its work both before and after it touches your code.

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.

  • [August 5, 2026] Marcus Dieterle: Use the Edge browser control to extend Access
  • [August 6, 2026] Tom van Stiphout: Anonymizer for Access Data
  • [September 2, 2026] John Mallinson: Working with the Windows API
  • [October 7, 2026] Peter Bryant / Andrew Richards: GraphAuthenticator – the ‘New’ Outlook problem solved and a world of possibilities to explore

Access Roadmap

There were no changes made to the roadmap between the Week in Review last week (2026-07-18) and this week (2026-07-25).

The roadmap was last updated June 23, 2026.

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

  • AUG 2026: Cascading combo and list boxes with LinkMasterFields/LinkChildFields: Combo boxes and list boxes now support LinkMasterFields/LinkChildFields properties, enabling cascading dropdowns (e.g., Country filters City) without writing VBA code.
  • JUL 2026: Rounded corners on Access form controls: We’re making it easier to give your Access apps a polished, up-to-date feel. With the new CornerRadius property, you can add rounded corners to form controls—bringing a softer, more modern look to your designs.
  • JUN 2026: Zooming for Continuous Forms and Multiple-Items Forms: Access extends zoom capabilities to continuous forms and pop-up forms, building on zoom support already available in tables and queries. Adjust magnification from 10 percent to 500 percent using the slider in the lower-right corner or controls on the ribbon. Keyboard shortcuts are also available, making it easy to quickly change your view and focus on the details that matter most.
  • MAY 2026: Enable zoom magnification to Microsoft Access for Forms, Tables, Queries: 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 in Access forms, tables, and queries.

Rolling Out

  • JUN 2026: Design Access forms and reports without 22-inch size constraints: With the removal of the 22-inch limit, your apps can now take full advantage of today’s larger monitors. You can display more data, create flexible layouts, and deliver a better experience on wide and high-resolution screens.

Launched

None listed.

Upcoming End-of-Life Dates

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

2024

2025

2026

2027

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

2031

2033

2034

Ongoing

Date TBD

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All original code samples by Mike Wolfe are licensed under CC BY 4.0