Cannot start Access today. Get error "Automatic configuration of the current version of Microsoft Access has failed."

Allow me the slight satisfaction of a teeny weeny little rant...

I have been thinking about this for years (decades now).

Software companies and their employees suffer nil consequences (or so close to nil that it's  equivalent to nil) as a result of their actions/errors/bugs - you know what I mean.

Imagine buying a car and signing an equivalent document to what software vendors put out - you know - the one that basically states you shall use our product as is and we are not responsible for any losses incurred.

Imagine Takata using that lame excuse for the deaths caused by their faulty airbag to try and avoid a multi-$billion fine and a multi-million car recall worldwide. The fine was for knowing about the fault/s and covering it up.

No one can imagine that in the car industry and yet we live with the "nil-consequence to s/w vendors" concept without a peep - that I am aware of.

I do not know when this will change - but I am confident it will change - perhaps when s/w starts killing people in autonomous vehicles - perhaps only then will legislators start to focus on what s/w vendors have been getting away with for decades.

Tom,

I have seen such consequences to software companies, but it happens more in enterprise environments than in small business and individual user environments. Also, software failures tend not to make headlines as often as failures such as Takata air bag failures do.

For example - when downtime losses start at $100,000 per hour and quickly climb, or failures disrupt mission-critical systems and services (to mention just a few scenarios) things do get fixed pronto.

Tom,

I have seen such consequences to software companies, but it happens more in enterprise environments than in small business and individual user environments. Also, software failures tend not to make headlines as often as failures such as Takata air bag failures do.

For example - when downtime losses start at $100,000 per hour and quickly climb, or failures disrupt mission-critical systems and services (to mention just a few scenarios) things do get fixed pronto.

Yes for sure in the enterprise but I was referring more to retail users like vehicle users. (should have explained better)

Still, the core barrier behind which the big boys hide ("..use as is with no liability to us...") surely cannot last forever. Surely.

Also surely in this case with Access being unusable for ?hrs and/or days AND maybe not so tiny businesses of say 50+ users not being able to do anything at all and not making sales AND Microsoft deeming it's affecting a too small a user base to bother with a quick fix surely must come under some sort of something. Surely.

Of course a class action is the usual path taken in these scenarios but who the heck could take on the money of MS - unless lives were at stake and/or lost.

I just received a notification from the Access Dev Team that they have identified the underlying issue and created a fix.  So if you update your build to 9029.2253 the problem should be resolved.

Also post back should you still have any issue after implementing the update.

Thank you so much for letting us know Daniel.  

The new build 9029.2253 worked for me.

Although I'm VERY appreciative that the engineer (that must have been sick or on vacation has returned to work and) was able to fix the problem, I'm aghast that it took so long to resolve.  Imagine if any of us were in a work environment, responsible for an issue that affected so many customers...and it took 2 weeks to fix.  Yikes!

In the back of my mind...I'm fretting that in the big "rush" to get this problem fixed...something else will have been broken.

Although I'm VERY appreciative that the engineer (that must have been sick or on vacation has returned to work and) was able to fix the problem, I'm aghast that it took so long to resolve.  Imagine if any of us were in a work environment, responsible for an issue that affected so many customers...and it took 2 weeks to fix.  Yikes!

There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for the time it took to fix. They should hang their heads in shame and then get fired. NO EXCUSE AT ALL. Disgraceful behavior.

This was not a minor issue with Access. IT WOULD NOT START AT ALL! Do they have any comprehension between these 2 degrees of 'not working'? No they do not have any idea. They cannot relate to their customers at all.

Let me give you an insight into their possible mental state based on my experience as to how the boffins at IBM thought back when they were the software/harware gods.

A good friend of mine was a high flying IT manager for a large company. Because of his deep knowledge of IBM mid-range (AS400) applications and their desire to bring in a high quality person that was not IBMed(ie was not taken from university and indoctrinated into IBM's way and knew nothing else) he was lured by $s into joining them. What role - I cannot remember.

OK here's my point. He was completely and utterly shocked by the arrogance of the staffat IBM towards their customers. I am referring especially to the 'behind the scenes' techos. The sales people were slightly better (not much) because they coped the wrath from customers when things went wrong.

The techos thought  "...oh were are doing such complex stuff with the software were are working on... oh it's so easy for users... they are such morons... what are they complaining about...". You get the idea. 

Yes folks I would be completely and utterly shocked if the programmers at Microsoft were any different.