Flaws in Microsoft Access

Provided by Allen Browne, December 2007. Updated October 2008.

Bugs introduced by SP3 for Office 2003

As every developer knows, fixing one bug may introduce another.

Unfortunately, Service Pack 3 introduced a range of new Access bugs:

1. Combo boxes go blank if their RowSource is a table field that has something in its Format property.

2. Access 2003 crashes if a combo's RowSource is a table with more than 31 fields. Demo.

3. Visual Source Safe has serious problems with A2003 SP3.

4. Bit field in SQL Server table fails.

5. SHAPE in SQL Server view fails.

6. Append query dialog (Query dialog) fails to show the first table in your database.

The Office 2003 SP3 bugs also affect Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook and Document Imaging.

Also, you will find numerous file types are blocked after you install SP3. The link explains how to re-enable them.

Microsoft has released a hotfix for some of these Access bugs.

October 2008 update: Some users say the hotfix also solves a problem where Access 2003 will not run at all, forever saying,
    "Please wait while Windows configures Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003."