Week in Review

Week in Review: November 7, 2026

Highlights include the announced deprecation of the legacy browser control, a more flexible MsgBox and InputBox, and a video on RegEx in VBA.

Mike Wolfe

• 6 min read
Week in Review: November 7, 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-opus-4.8.

  • Official Access Blog
    • Deprecation of Legacy Web Browser Control, by Courtney Owen: Announces the planned May 2027 deprecation of the Internet Explorer-based Web Browser Control in Microsoft Access and explains how to identify affected forms, convert them to the Edge Browser Control, and update related VBA code before the transition.
  • Mathieu Guindon (Rubberduck VBA)
    • RDCore.CLI / Platform Updates: Reports progress on RDCore, Rubberduck's pre-alpha LSP-based VBA language platform, including edit-and-continue debugging, code formatting, completion lists, MSForms hosting, and planned HexIDE integration aimed at importing, testing, and building VBA projects by 2027.
  • Daniel Pineault (DEVelopers HUT)
  • Colin Riddington (Isladogs on Access)
    • NEW - Rounded Corners on Form Controls: Describes the new CornerRadius property rolling out to the Beta channel, which applies rounded corners to form controls (initially textboxes) with a 30-degree arc constraint and can be set via the property sheet or code.
    • Font Size in Expression Builder/Macro Designer: Explains the new Beta channel properties that let developers increase the previously fixed 8pt font size in the Macro Designer and Expression Builder windows via Access Options or code.
    • Input Box with Position & Zoom: Presents the InputBoxPZ function, developed with Xevi Batlle and AI assistance, which extends the native VBA InputBox with optional zoom and screen-position/docking arguments.
    • Message Box with Position & Zoom: Presents the MsgBoxPZ function, developed with Xevi Batlle and AI assistance, which adds Left, Top, and Zoom arguments to the native VBA MsgBox to control its screen position and scaling.
    • Highlight Your Class: Demonstrates an example app using Eric Blomquist's reusable class module to highlight the current row and/or alternate rows in continuous forms with minimal form-level code and user-selectable colours.
    • Freeze Columns in Continuous Forms - Part 3 (Updated 31 Oct): Demonstrates how to make TAB and SHIFT+TAB navigation respect frozen columns in a continuous form, using class module code from A.P.R. Pillai and no APIs, in a collaboration with Xevi Batlle.
  • George Hepworth (Grover Park Consulting)
  • Mike Wolfe (NoLongerSet)
    • Throwback Thursday: November 5, 2026: Revisits an article warning against strawman arguments used by enterprise IT departments to ban Microsoft Access projects, plus a comic about IT software procurement.
    • UKAUG 2026: Version Control for Access Developers: Shares an interactive slide deck and resources from a UKAUG 2026 conference talk on putting an Access application under Git version control using Adam Waller's VCS add-in and GitHub Desktop, covering commits, branch protection, pull requests, and letting AI run the Git commands.

Videos

GitHub Projects

Changelog summary generated by Claude Opus 5.5.

MCP-Access One release this week, v0.7.65, stops MCP-Access from closing your database or quitting your copy of Access.

The fix matters if you let the server attach to an Access window you already had open. Earlier versions could close your database when you switched the server to another one. Compiling or compacting through the server also made it treat your database as its own, so the next switch closed it in your window. Juanjo Luna (@lunasoft2001) contributed the session rewrite in PR #42, based on a proposal by Sachin, and tested it against real Access. A separate fix applies if you call the server from your own scripts: a script that exits without access_close no longer leaves an Access process running and holding the file lock. There are no new tools; the count stays at 69.

If you work in Access alongside the server, upgrade to v0.7.65.

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.

Access Roadmap

There were no changes made to the roadmap between the Week in Review last week (2026-10-31) and this week (2026-11-07).

The roadmap was last updated October 15, 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

  • OCT 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.
  • SEP 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.

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

  • AUG 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.

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