title: Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0 provider is not registered
body: <p>I have a Visual Studio 2008 solution with two projects (a Word-Template project and a VB.Net console application for testing).  Both projects reference a database project which opens a connection to an MS-Access 2007 database file and have references to System.Data.OleDb.  In the database project I have a function which retrieves a data table as follows</p>
  
  <pre><code> private class AdminDatabase
     ' stores the connection string which is set in the New() method
     dim strAdminConnection as string
  
     public sub New()
     ...
     adminName = dlgopen.FileName
     conAdminDB = New OleDbConnection
     conAdminDB.ConnectionString = "Data Source='" + adminName + "';" + _
         "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0"
  
     ' store the connection string in strAdminConnection
     strAdminConnection = conAdminDB.ConnectionString.ToString()
     My.Settings.SetUserOverride("AdminConnectionString", strAdminConnection)
     ...
     End Sub
  
     ' retrieves data from the database
     Public Function getDataTable(ByVal sqlStatement As String) As DataTable
          Dim ds As New DataSet
          Dim dt As New DataTable
          Dim da As New OleDbDataAdapter
          Dim localCon As New OleDbConnection
  
  
          localCon.ConnectionString = strAdminConnection
  
          Using localCon
              Dim command As OleDbCommand = localCon.CreateCommand()
              command.CommandText = sqlStatement
              localCon.Open()
              da.SelectCommand = command
              da.Fill(dt)
              getDataTable = dt
          End Using
  
      End Function
  End Class
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When I call this function from my Word 2007 Template project everything works fine; no errors. But when I run it from the console application it throws the following exception</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>ex = {"The 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0'
    provider is not registered on the
    local machine."}</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Both projects have the same reference and the console application did work when I first wrote it (a while ago) but now it has stopped work.  I must be missing something but I don't know what.  Any ideas?</p>