Microsoft KB Archive/184381

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{| The information in this article applies to:
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 * Microsoft Visual Basic Professional and Enterprise Editions for Windows, versions 4.0, 5.0
 * Microsoft Data Access Components, version 1.5

SUMMARY
This article presents useful information for programmers who want to use the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) within Visual Basic. This article discusses the following topics:


 * How to Obtain the Microsoft Data Access Components
 * The MDAC Standalone Setup versus the MDAC Redistribution
 * MDAC Resources/Points of Information
 * How to find MDAC Knowledge Base Articles

How to Obtain the Microsoft Data Access Components
The Microsoft Data Access Components is a standalone setup program that installs various database technologies including ODBC, OLE DB, ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), the Remote Data Service (RDS), and ODBC Drivers for Access, Oracle, and SQL Server.

There are two ways to install the MDAC components; one is a standalone setup intended for developers, the other a redistribution that installs just the run-time components needed to redistribute an application built with MDAC. The latest version of both MDAC installation programs can be obtained with the Microsoft Data Access Components version 1.5c, available free for download from:

http://www.microsoft.com/data

The MDAC Standalone Setup versus the MDAC Redistribution Setup
There are two ways to install the MDAC 1.5 components.

  The MDAC Standalone setup, which installs the binary components for ODBC, OLE DB, ADO, and RDS, in addition to various ODBC Drivers, samples, and online documentation. This program is intended for installation on developers' machines, and not with the actual application you distribute. This program has limitations, such as requiring a different version for either Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0, and can not run on Windows NT 3.51. For Windows 95 users, you may need to apply two patches (OLE Automation and Comctl32.dll) to enable this program to run. For more information, please see the following Knowledge Base article: ARTICLE-ID: Q177136 TITLE: INFO: Required Files to Install MDAC 1.5 (ODBC/OLEDB/ADO/RDS)   The MDAC Redistribution installs just the run-time components needed for MDAC technologies. There are two versions; the first version installs ODBC, the OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers, the SQL Server Driver, ADO, and RDS. The second version adds ODBC Drivers for Access and Oracle (and adds 2 MB in size). You cannot redistribute ODBC without the OLE DB Provider for ODBC (see the article listed below for more information). The size of ADO and RDS is negligible compared to ODBC and OLE DB. The MDAC Redistribution can be run in silent mode; however, you may have to reboot because it installs some of the latest OLE Automation components (which require a reboot). ARTICLE-ID: Q181126 TITLE: INFO: Redistribution for MDAC 1.5 Components Available ARTICLE-ID: Q178852 TITLE: INFO: OLE DB Provider for ODBC Now an ODBC 3.5 Core Component 

MDAC Resources/Points of Information The MDAC Web site, which contains the MDAC components, is located at:

http://www.microsoft.com/data How to Find MDAC Knowledge Base Articles MDAC components ship both as a standalone product and with other products such as Internet Explorer, Internet Information Server, Visual Studio, Office, and SQL Server. To find MDAC articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) on the Web, connect to:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/ First time users must register to use this site. On this site, in the "My Search Is About" box, select "Data Access Components (MDAC)" as the product. Type your question in the "My Question Is" box, and then click Find. For the MSDN or other non-Web-based Knowledge Base search mechanisms, you can use the keyword MDAC, which all MDAC articles contain. Other keywords that offer greater granularity when searching are documented in the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: Q179301 TITLE    : HOWTO: Search for MDAC 1.5 Articles by Article Topic/Keyword
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Last reviewed: April 24, 1998

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