Hosting Microsoft Access 2010 in WPF or Windows Forms?

Question

Is it possible to host microsoft access 2010 in WPF or Windows Forms as ActiveX or anything? I've seen DsoFramer examples but it's not supported from Microsoft and not to mention buggy. Some articles suggest using webBrowser but it's coupled with registry settings that I would not like to overwrite.

Interobility at that moment isn't that important than just to be able to load the access database in a parent window.

Do I have any options of doing that other than using webBrowser control?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Probably not the answer you want to hear but there are no really good solutions available for embedding Office apps/documents in WPF/Winforms anymore. DSOFramer was about the only real choice, but it's dead and the KB has been removed. A web browser control is also plagued with problems.

Although not confirmed to support Access 2010, the only solution I know of for embedding Office docs these days is http://www.officeocx.com/. It has had its share of problems too - rumor has it that it is based off of DSOFramer.

Answer 2

You can try to use Microsoft Sharepoint, and serve the access functionality remotely through an embedded browser frame. Check this video about it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq-tDuPfgZc

Answer 3

There is a way. Amazon Web Services have a service called WorkSpaces. I've managed to host applications that give clients remote connection to their software that is not traditionally for the web. One of them was an accounting system. The other is an MS Access application. I would be interested in knowing if Azure have a cheaper better solution, considering they own the product Windows Terminal Server. What I would really like to see on Azure is a windows container for MS Access.