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

The reversion of Office 2016 to Build 9001.2138 worked for me 100% and was very fast and very impressive.

Daniel Pineault on his website page https://www.devhut.net/2018/03/05/ms-access-bug-automatic-configuration-of-the-current-version-of-microsoft-access-has-failed/ gives instructions under the heading of "Uninstall the Latest Office Update" how to revert to Build 9001.2138.

But for me the location of program officec2rclient.exe is not where those instructions point to.

It is located in "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ClickToRun"

Possibly he may have been referring to Office 2013 file location as Microsoft Office 15 refers to Office 2013 (well at least that's my understanding).

Just a heads-up for anyone else searching for it.

Also, Outlook email accounts were not wiped out. So far the only 'loss' is the non-remembrance of the pinned and last-used files when right-clicking the icons in Start on Windows 10.

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.

Hi SG

re OpenOffice - yes and Google have equivalents but, and it's a BIG BUT, I have hundreds of 1000s of lines of Access VBA  code.

Have you had a close look at Base?

I say uninstall the latest update because that has always traditionally been the terminology used.  Historically, you used the control panel and simply uninstalled an update.

Thanks Daniel

I thought that might be the case but was not 100% sure.

I'm sorry for the confusion.

I say uninstall the latest update because that has always traditionally been the terminology used.  Historically, you used the control panel and simply uninstalled an update.

Now, however, Microsoft has completely changed things.  Updates are no longer independent, nor are they listed in the control panel.  Now, you execute a DOS command to 'revert' your installation to a new build number (this can be forwards or backwards from your current build).

So the solution, and the only thing that needs to be done, is to revert your installation to an earlier version than 9029.2167.  Users have been reporting that reverting to build 9001.2138restore functionality to Access.

As always, a global PC backup is a good idea.