Up to now we use DAO 3.51 (MS-Access 97) databases with our application. We are considering using a newer version.Which versions are available?How about deployment?How about royalties/licence fees?Any recommendations about alternatives?This question should be easily researchable, but I failed.
Deploying Microsoft-Access databases with our application
licensing;deployment;microsoft access
The only fee to using an Access database file is if you also use the full version of Microsoft Access. If you app is built with Visual Studio, deployment should be pretty easy to include your datafile and necessary drivers (latest version of windows should have them).The latest format is for 2007/2010. This is a very good article explaining conversions, benefits, etc. http://allenbrowne.com/access2007.htmlAs long as your app doesn't have multiple users sharing data, SQL Compact is an alternative (See Tom Morgan's Answer), but you would have to adjust your code. If you have users that need to sync to SQL Server from their occasionally connected desktop/mobile app, SQL Compact has many features to make this easier.