Firstly I’ll be frank and say this whole issue stink – just another nice Microsoft bugger-up. By default you cannot install the x64 driver for Access (AccessDatabaseEngine_x64.exe) on a machine that already has a standard 32-bit version of Office (which should be for the majority of users). However, if you run any 64-bit apps they won’t be able to access any ODBC\/OLEDB drivers like for Access or CSV and so on. Yes, you can explicitly run the app as a 32-bit app and then access those 32-bit drivers again but then any 64-bit functionality goes out the door. (aka in .Net you can set the target platform to x86 and then it should work).<\/p>\n
Now, there is a way to install AccessDatabaseEngine_x64.exe on a machine that has 32-bit Office (2010 I tested with) without the installer freaking out and gives you the error that it cannot continue because a 32-bit version of office is installed. To do it run this:<\/p>\n
AccessDatabaseEngine_x64.exe \/passive<\/strong><\/p>\n That will give you the ability to open the 64-bit ODBC data Sources app and add DSNs. Wonderful except for one MAJOR big problem. If you now open up any office application if will freak out – something about some odbcij.dll missing or something. You can try a repair install but that will break the 64-bit ODBC\/OLEDB drivers again. Bugger!<\/p>\n Fortunately there is a way around that problem as well. This will work if you don’t have Access installed (I have not tried it with Access installed and it might break Access altogether).<\/p>\n Open regedit and go to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Office\\14.0\\Common\\FilesPaths<\/strong>“. If there is a key to mso.dll delete it (at your own risk of course).<\/p>\n Now you should be able to open Office without it complaining and the 64-bit ODBC driver tool will also work. If for some reason you did an Office repair and it broke the AccessDatabaseEngine_x64.exe install you must first uninstall it from control panel (something like Microsoft Access database engine 2010) and then rerun the AccessDatabaseEngine_x64.exe \/passive command.<\/p>\n Lets hope Microsoft will find a better way to fix their own mess.<\/p>\n Update: BTW in Windows 7 64-bit (probably Vista as well) you can create a shortcut to the 64-bit ODBC control panel tool using this link: C:\\WINDOWS\\SysWOW64\\odbcad32.exe. In Windows 8 at least they have separate entries (well I’m using classic shell…).<\/p>\n Update2: To use the 64-bit OLEDB provider for Access use the provider string “Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0<\/strong>“. Using the old string “Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0” does not work anymore (on 64-bit)<\/p>\n Update3: It seems newer versions of Office does some kind of check\/repair after reboots and so returning the mso.dll registry value and breaking 32-bit Office applications again. To fix this use a registry file like this:<\/p>\n Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00<\/p>\n [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Office\\14.0\\Common\\FilesPaths] Possibly you can put it in a batch file that runs during startup (or scheduled task with Admin permissions)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Firstly I’ll be frank and say this whole issue stink – just another nice Microsoft bugger-up. By default you cannot install the x64 driver for Access (AccessDatabaseEngine_x64.exe) on a machine that already has a standard 32-bit version of Office (which …<\/p>\n
\n“mso.dll”=-<\/p>\n