MDAC This portion of the MSDN Data Access and Storage Developer Center hosts information on Microsoft's native-code data access technologies: ADO, OLEDB, ODBC, and others. Look to this site to get the latest MDAC release and all supported releases, as well as documentation, code samples, support resources, and community. MDAC 2.8 SP1 This is the redistributable installer for the MDAC 2.8 SP1 release; it installs the same Data Access components as Microsoft Windows XP SP2 and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SP4. This release does not include Microsoft Jet, the Microsoft Jet OLE DB Provider or ODBC driver, the Desktop Database ODBC Drivers, or the Visual FoxPro ODBC Driver. MDAC Road Map Learn about the past, present, and future of the Microsoft data access technologies, including DB-Library, ESQL, DAO, Microsoft® Data Access Components (MDAC) (including ODBC, ADO, and OLE DB), and ADO.NET. This article identifies which technologies are being enhanced, and which technologies and components are being deprecated or excluded from future releases. MDAC 2.8 This is the redistributable installer for the MDAC 2.8 release; it installs the same Data Access components as Microsoft Windows Server 2003. This release does not include Microsoft Jet, the Microsoft Jet OLE DB Provider or ODBC driver, the Desktop Database ODBC Drivers, or the Visual FoxPro ODBC Driver. MDAC 2.8 Software Development Kit The MDAC 2.8 SDK is for developers who are building applications using ADO, OLE DB, and ODBC. It contains updated documentation, headers, libs and typelibs for x86, IA64 and AMD64 platforms, as well as updated sample applications and developer tools. MDAC 2.8 Documentation Browse the MDAC 2.8 SDK Documentation in the MSDN Library. ODBC Microsoft Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) SDK Documentation Check out the ODBC content in the MDAC 2.8 documentation. OLE DB Microsoft OLE DB SDK Documentation Read about the OLE DB content in the MDAC 2.8 documentation. Meditating on OLE DB and .NET Follow the musings of Dino Esposito as he attempts to answer the question, "What is software exactly?" OLE DB Minimum Levels of Consumer and Provider Functionality Learn how to use OLE DB as a component technology in this article that describes the minimal levels of functionality that an OLE DB consumer should expect from a general-purpose OLE DB provider. ADO Microsoft Active X Data Objects (ADO) SDK Documentation Read the ADO content in the MDAC 2.8 documentation. ADO Programmer's Guide Check out the ADO programming content in the MDAC 2.8 documentation. Revisiting the Use of ADO in .NET Applications Learn how to use a data adapter to import an ADO recordset in this column by Dino Esposito. ADO Command Strategies Discover some tips and tricks on using the ADO Command object. Although this article was written for the Visual Basic developer, most of its points are language-neutral.

MDAC Resources MDAC Technology Information Get introductory and conceptual material on MDAC and its component technologies. MDAC Downloads Look here for all the key downloads for MDAC, including major releases and service packs, release manifests, and downloadable documentation. MDAC Support and Community Here you'll find links to the MDAC Support Center on support.microsoft.com, as well as newsgroups related to MDAC technologies such as ADO, OLEDB, and ODBC.