Microsoft Access and Windows 7 Problem Solved

In my last post I noted that we were having a problem where the connection to the server was being lost, which would make Access stop working. Our IT people determined that a utility in Windows 7 was automatically refreshing the network connections and that was dropping the connections. After they turned off that utility the problem has not shown up again, so it was not the Access Based Enumeration Directory Structure Server that was causing the problem.

MS Access, Windows 7, and an Access Based Enumeration Directory Structure Server

Our IT department recently switched us to Windows 7 and an access based enumeration directory structure server. I have not really noticed any difference for most applications. Except MS Access. Since the switch the connection to the server is frequently dropped. What this means is that when you ask Access to do something that requires a form that is not currently active you will get a “network access interrupted” error and the database freezes. To unfreeze the database you have to close it and reopen it. Even with an active form, refreshing it can generate a “network access interrupted” error. Trying to open the VBA editor will get you a “File Not Found” error that you cannot get out of: clicking “Okay” just generates a new “File Not Found” error. You have to crash the database.

Continuing to try to work around these dropped server connections will corrupt your database. I had that happen yesterday. This morning I had to close and reopen my database five times in one hour. And I wasn’t even working very actively with the database.

This is very frustrating. I have no control over the problem, our IT staff needs to find a way to stop the connections from dropping. At this point out IT staff seems to think the problem is Windows 7, rather than the server. Our main database, KIDB, is used by pretty much everyone at the Kheel Center all day, every day. It is where we do our work. Constantly closing and opening it and/or risking corruption is just not tenable. I hope soon to be able to publish a post with the solution to this problem.