MS Access DB Engine (32-bit) with Office 64-bit

Here’s a workaround for installing the 64-bit version of the Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 redistributable on a system with a 32-bit MS Office version installed:

  • Check the 64-bit registry key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\FilesPaths” before installing the 64-bit version of the Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 redistributable.
  • If it does not contain the “mso.dll” registry value, then you will need to rename or delete the value after installing the 64-bit version of the Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 redistributable on a system with a 32-bit version of MS Office installed.
  • Use the “/passive” command line parameter to install the redistributable, e.g. “C:\directory path\AccessDatabaseEngine_x64.exe” /passive
  • Delete or rename the “mso.dll” registry value, which contains the path to the 64-bit version of MSO.DLL (and should not be used by 32-bit MS Office versions).

Now you can start a 32-bit MS Office application without the “re-configuring” issue.
Note that the “mso.dll” registry value will already be present if a 64-bit version of MS Office is installed. In this case the value should not be deleted or renamed.

Also if you do not want to use the “/passive” command line parameter you can edit the AceRedist.msi file to remove the MS Office architecture check:

You can now use this file to install the Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 redistributable on a system where a “conflicting” version of MS Office is installed (e.g. 64-bit version on system with 32-bit MS Office version)
Make sure that you rename the “mso.dll” registry value as explained above (if needed).

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