Using The Workbench With Multiple Versions Of Access and Windows Vista/Windows 7

Changing between different versions of Office in Windows Vista/Windows 7 is more problematic than in Windows XP because it is more than likely that you are not using your computer with Administration privileges. When you want to switch between say Access 2007 and Access 2003, a lot of changes have to be made to the registry. To ensure this happens, you need to try either

Option 1: Modify the Registry

This suggestion from Graham Mandeno (Access MVP) modifies the Windows Registry so that Access always runs with full permissions:

1. Start RegEdit.
2. Find the key: 4AFFC9A0-5F99-101B-AF4E-00AA003F0F07

Specifically
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{4AFFC9A0-5F99-101B-AF4E-00AA003F0F07}\9.0

3. Right-click it, and choose Permissions.
4. In the Permissions dialog, select the Users group.
5. Under Permissions for Users check the Allow box beside Full Control.

Even though the key refers to 9.0, the solution applies to all versions from Access 2000 onwards.

(As always, exercise care when editing the registry.)

Option 2: Disable UAC   

Search windows help for UAC and disable on your computer. If you do this, remember that other people may not have taken this step and you may need to enable the protection and test your application from time to time.

To Disable UAC in Windows 7 - Setup as per this picture

More ideas here

NOTE:  Sometimes even with UAC disabled, the mdb gets stuck with a Access12 reference.  To fix, run Access 2007 by itself. Close. run Access 2003 by itself and open a blank MDB.  Alt F11 and check reference is Access11 not Access12.  Then open your preferred Access 2003 database holding the Shift Key. Alt F11. Check reference is Access11. If it is Compile.