Week in Review: September 6, 2025

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.}

• Official Access Blog
  • End of support for Access 2016 and Access 2019 nears, by LindaLu Cannon: Announces that Office 2016 and 2019 will reach end of support on October 14, 2025, encouraging users to upgrade to Microsoft 365 Apps subscriptions for continued security updates and features.
• Crystal Long
  • Access Access LinkedIn Newsletter
    • Find Record on any Open Access Form: Introduces the FindRecordN VBA procedure that enables quick implementation of record-finding functionality on any open Access form or subform using unbound combo boxes.
  • Ms Access Gurus
    • Find Record on Access form: Provides detailed VBA code and implementation examples for the FindRecordN function that searches for records on Access forms using primary key values.
• John Mallinson (The VBA Help)
  • Getting locale information using the GetLocaleInfoEx Windows API Function: Demonstrates how to use the GetLocaleInfoEx Windows API function to retrieve locale-specific information such as country names, date formats, and currency settings.
  • Getting windows ... and getting information about windows ... using the Windows API: Covers various Windows API functions for finding windows and retrieving window information including handles, class names, coordinates, and status.
  • Get graphics / display capabilities for a device using the GetDeviceCaps Windows API Function: Explains how to use the GetDeviceCaps Windows API function to obtain device graphics and display information such as screen dimensions, resolution, and color capabilities.
• Jonathan Halder (Access JumpStart 2.0)
  • Why you'll always have a job as an Access developer: Explains how evolving client requirements and the complexity of business needs ensure continued demand for Access developers despite AI advances.
  • A Day in The Life: A snapshot of a sole proprietor Access developer's typical workweek, including client updates, Excel automation, report modifications, and business operations.
• Daniel Pineault (DEVelopers HUT)
  • KB5064081 Causing VBA Headaches and Crashing Access?: Reports on Windows update KB5064081 causing Access crashes when using ADO/DAO code with the old Jet OLEDB provider.
  • VBScript.RegExp Assertion Failure!: Alerts developers about assertion failures in VBScript.RegExp caused by Access version 2508 update, with reference to Mike Wolfe's workaround solution.
  • Don't Leave Your Children Alone With AI: A cautionary warning about AI tools providing harmful or inappropriate content, emphasizing the need for supervised use by children.
  • Rebuild UtterAccess Code Archive | Share & Preserve Access Files: Proposes creating a community repository to recover and preserve Access code samples lost when UtterAccess shut down.
• Colin Riddington (Isladogs on Access)
  • Database Analyzer Pro (UPDATED): A comprehensive tool for analyzing Access databases without opening them directly, featuring extensive reporting capabilities for database objects, metadata, code analysis, and issue detection.
  • Export Objects to HTML Encoding Issues (FIXED): Documents a Microsoft Access bug where exporting objects to HTML with formatting caused unwanted character encoding and data scrambling, which was fixed in version 2509 build 19230.20002.
  • AEU43: Version Control for the Sole Developer: A presentation by Adam Waller on how sole Access developers can use version control to save time, avoid mistakes, and work with confidence using the free VCS Add-in.
• Mike Wolfe (NoLongerSet)
  • Throwback Thursday: September 4, 2025: A curated collection of essential SQL Server resources covering automated backups, connection troubleshooting, maintenance scripts, and testing techniques for database administrators.

Videos‌

• George Hepworth (YouTube channel)
  • From Access to PowerApps: Replicating Northwind: A series from one of the core team members of the Northwind 2.0 template redesign project.
    • Interface Design – Create a Tab Control in PowerApps (12:57)
• Richard Rost (YouTube channel)
  • Quick Queries #56 (45:05): Optimizing Slow Databases, Conditional Formatting Date Fields
  • Microsoft Access Fitness Database:
    • Part 31 (17:48): Copy Fields Between Tables VBA, Returning New Record ID
    • Part 32 (14:10): Building a Weight Plate Calculator with VBA
  • The Truth About... (02:52): The Truth About "The Hidden Costs of Running Microsoft Access Without Support"
  • Images from OpenAI (21:38): Generate AI Art in Microsoft Access with the OpenAI (ChatGPT) DALL-E API

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.}

• [September 09, 2025] Juan Soto: SQL Server with Access Academy (Part 1)
• [September 30, 2025] Crystal Long & Adrian Bell: Using Custom and Built-in Functions in Expressions
• [October 01, 2025] Marcus Dieterle: High impact – Custom dialogs and mini-notifications
• [October 28, 2025] Colin Riddington: A Masterclass in Access Security
• [November 5, 2025] Ynte Jan Kundersma: Using Power Automate with Office Apps (DATE CHANGE)
• [December 03, 2025] Adolph Dupré: Using Twilio for Texting from Access (TOPIC ADDED)
• [February 04, 2026] Aleksander Wojtasz: Creating an Advanced Data Grid Integrated with Access (DATE CHANGE and TOPIC ADDED)
• [March 04, 2026] Chris Arnold: Using Disconnected (In-Memory) ADO Recordsets in Access

Access Roadmap

There were no changes made to the roadmap between the Week in Review last week (2025-08-30) and this week (2025-09-06).

The roadmap was last updated the week of August 9, 2025. The development priorities were last updated at the German-language AEK conference on October 20, 2024.

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.

"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.

Development Priorities

The items listed below reflect Microsoft's order of priority and were published in the following article, Microsoft's Plans for Access Oct '24 – March '25.

The items are listed in priority order according to Principal Engineering Manager Dale Rector. The "Expected Benefit" of each feature is shown in italics after the description of the feature itself.

New priorities added since the previous set of priorities are shown in bold below.

1. Continued Focus on Monthly Issue Fixes: (Monthly Issue Fix Blog) Improved product quality and reliability
2. Large monitor support for forms: Improved support of Access on the latest hardware
3. Integrated source control: Simplifying the process of building mission critical Access solutions

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

In Development

• SEP 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.
• SEP 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

NOTE: Dates listed are rollout start dates.

• SEP 2024: Integrate Monaco framework to improve SQL editor capabilities: The Monaco Editor is the fully featured code editor from VS Code with standard IDE functionality such as syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, and autocomplete.

Upcoming End-of-Life Dates

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

2024

• [JUL 01] Teams Classic Client
• [JUL 09] SQL Server 2014
• [OCT 01] Auto-migration of Classic Outlook begins for personal accounts
• [OCT 08] Windows 11 version 22H2

2025

• [JAN 01] Auto-migration of Classic Outlook begins for Small/Medium Business users
• [OCT 14] Access 2016 | Access 2019 | Office 2016 | Office 2019
• [OCT 14] Windows 10
• [OCT 28] Salesforce ODBC Driver
• [NOV 11] Windows 11 version 23H2

2026

• [APR 01] Auto-migration of Classic Outlook begins for Enterprise users
• [JUL 14] SQL Server 2016
• [OCT 13] Access 2021 | Office 2021
• [OCT 13] Windows 11 version 24H2

2027

• [JAN 12] Windows Server 2016
• [OCT 12] SQL Server 2017

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)