What is the most current Microsoft Jet Database Engine version and how to get the installer package?

VASARI Akos 0 Reputation points
2025-01-24T10:30:54.6133333+00:00

We have a legacy software written in VB6, which stores a lot of data in various Access database files. Getting recordsets are working, but getting the values from fields causes problems for some of our customers.

For the majority it works fine, but for some of them the recordset field values cannot be read and throwing errors.

We have not found the reason why is it not working on some computers (both Win10 and Win11), since the "msjet" files are the same version on a working machine and on the ones throwing the errors.

As we know, the Jet Database Engine 4.0 is part of the Windows operating system. So there should be no need to distribute it among our customers.

We have and old MSJet 4.0 SP5 package (msm package from 2006), which seems to help when installed. Problem is, we do not exactly know what is happening during install, we can not look into the msm package. Tried Process Monitor, and comparing the registry files before and after install too, unfortunately without much success (as the Jet files were already the correct version in SysWOW64).

We are not very happy offering a solution with an almost 20 year old installer...

Is there an up-to-date installer for the Jet Database Engine 4.0? If yes, where could i download it?

If not, is there any other solutions for our problem?

Thank you in advance!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Access | For business | Windows

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  1. G R 0 Reputation points
    2026-08-15T15:03:12.4666667+00:00

    The "2016 version" from the other answer is ACE not JET, it is the recommended modern replacement and opens the same files but uses a different connection string. If you have apps you can not change that use Microsoft.JET.OLEDB.4.0 connection string you need older versions. There are different Jet Engine installers for 9x/NT and 2k that have been removed from Microsoft's site but are on archive.org. This one is from winetricks:

    https://web.archive.org/web/20210225171713/http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/3/9/4393c9ac-e69e-458d-9f6d-2fe191c51469/Jet40SP8_9xNT.exe

    With some luck it may work on newer versions of windows that have had their JET Engine files removed somehow, though I'd think a proper OS repair/reinstall would be better for those.

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  2. George Hepworth 23,120 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-01-24T13:51:36.3333333+00:00

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