if access is not installed will my program still operate

Question

I am developing a program that retrieves information from Excel files and converts that information to store it in an Access Database and use it later. The computer that the program will operate on does have Excel installed, but i am not sure whether it has Access. I was just wondering will my program work in this case or Access should definitely be installed on the other computer?

Answer 1

The answer is : it depends.

• If you are targeting mdb Access files, the Jet database engine comes pre-installed with Windows, so you do not need to install anything (make sure it's compiled for x86 though, not AnyCPU or it may not work on 64bit systems).

• If you are using the Access 2007/2010/2013 newer accdb format, the target machine must have the Access Database Engine installed (as KekySemau answered).
  Be careful though: you can only install either the 32bit or 64bit version, and your own program bitness must match that of the driver.
  Also, if the user has another version of MS Office installed (32bit or 64bit), you won't be able to install the engine (although it should already be installed if they have Office 2007 or a later version).

Short answer: if you stick with mdb, you don't need to install anything additional. In any case, make sure you compile your C# app for the x86 architecture explicitly.

Answer 2

The user may need to install the Access DataBase Engine (free download):
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=13255

ODBC and OLEDB drivers are installed for application developers to use in developing their applications with connectivity to Office file formats.