Microsoft Access ODBC Driver for Vista 64 bit

Richard · 16-02-2007

Does anyone know where/how I get an ODBC driver for Microsoft Access ODBC
Driver on Windows Vista 64 bit?

At the moment, when I open the ODBC Data Source Administrator and click on
the "Drivers" tab, only "SQL Server" is listed.

If anyone has got any ideas, I'd really appreciate them.

soupbowl · 25-02-2007

Did you find a resolution to this problem? I am experiencing the same.

Vista x64 with Office 2007

I found a workaround, which was to use a different ODBC tool.

The ODBC tool I was trying and having the problem was
C:\Windows\System32\odbcad32.exe

The other one, C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe, has loads of database
drivers in it, so when I use this one, I was able to set up an ODBC
connection to my access database!

I think that one of these exe's is the 32 bit version and the other is the
64 bit version.

Does anyone know what the solution is to this problem?

**Semitechie** · 09-02-2009

I had this problem and looked through all the forums without success, but finally found a solution. I have an Access database with linked tables that connects to an SQL server elsewhere. It worked on Windows 2000, XP, and my 32 bit Vista laptop, but not on the 64bit Vista desktop. I tried setting up a System DSN through ODBC drivers in the Control Panel. The test worked there, but when I opened the Access file it said it couldn't find the ODBC driver and therefore I couldn't open the linked tables.
The solution (found by carefully following instructions in the only Access manual I could find that even had ODBC in the index) was to set up the driver from within Access 2007, using Get External Data/More/ODBC database/linked tables. That opened up the same window you get from the Control Panel. It would not let me set a Machine connection, but did permit a User (file level) connection. I just had to click on the SQL server driver and the usual set of questions appeared. When I finished, the connection worked. Once the connection was established, it also shows up as a User DSN in the ODBC drivers via Control Panel.
I think the problem is that 64 bit Vista has another level of security, so that it only lets you make a connection that is specific to the file, and by doing it from inside Access, that lets the OS know that you're dealing with a 32 bit application.
There is a bunch of stuff in other forums about how there are two different Access drivers in different directories in Windows. I found both of those on my computer, but didn't have a clue what to do with the information. If you are making any kind of a connection for an Access database, the solution seems to be not to go searching for apparently missing drivers but to just establish the connection from inside Access 2007, where you get the old familiar list of all sorts of drivers. My control panel User DSN window also shows a phantom Access 2007 driver that it says doesn't exist, but all the drivers are there if you start from inside your Access database.

Thanks to all for the help. I've located the 32 bit ODBC tool and been semi-successful in creating and ODBC connection to an MS Access 2007 database. I say semi-successful because while I can connect to the database with Dreamweaver CS3 (and 4) when I try to load my web site, IIS 7.0 still doesn't recognize the database or the drivers.

Does anyone know how to get IIS to look at the 32 bit ODBC connections and NOT the 64 bit connections?

**DocDJ** · 18-04-2010

I have this problem too. I tried your solution, but I do not run a SQL DB Server of any kind, so I'm not sure what to put for "select the file data source that describes the driver you wish to connect to." I did not see an option for "linked tables".

I also tried the "new" option and again it asks what file to save it to.

What should I do? I found a LONG solution, involving about 15 steps, but that only works for one DB at a time.

I solved my own problem. On the Select Recipients tab, when asked for the data source, I did these steps:

clicked the NEW SOURCE button in the middle of the window
specified ODBC DSN
specified Access Database
navigated to my EXISTING DB and selected my query.

Now my full query results are present, using the * and ? from the "old days".

**smeeta** · 14-06-2010

I could create Microsoft Access ODBC driver dsn by running odbcad32.exe from syswow64 folder. However, this system dsn is not available in Control Panel > Administrative tools >system dsn. I wonder what is the problem. If anyone knows the answer, please let me know.