Microsoft provides a broad set of data access technologies that provides a variety of methods to work with databases. Beginning with Windows Vista, this set of technologies is called Windows Data Access Components (Windows DAC). Windows DAC is included in Windows Vista and is not available separately. MDAC 2.8 was included in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. There is also a redistributable version of MDAC, MDAC 2.8 Service Pack (SP) 1. This version should only be installed on Windows 2000. Because the Windows DAC/MDAC technologies are Windows components, support for these components depends on the Windows life cycle. As new versions of Windows are released, some components are deprecated. This topic discusses the deprecation of various Windows DAC/MDAC components.
Each of the following components is considered obsolete, and may be removed from future versions of Windows. When you write new applications, you should avoid using these deprecated components. When modifying existing applications, you are strongly encouraged to remove any dependency on these components.
Remote Data Services (RDS)
Remote Data Services (RDS) is a proprietary Microsoft mechanism for accessing remote data across the Internet or intranet. RDS presents security challenges and is deprecated; no major feature enhancements have been made to this technology since MDAC 2.1. Microsoft has released the .NET Framework, which has extensive SOAP capabilities. This technology directly replaces the RDS components. See the .NET Framework documentation for more information about "XML and SOAP Serialization".
Microsoft has also released the Microsoft SOAP Toolkit 2.0 that enables you to access remote data by using an open, XML-based standard. The SOAP 2.0 Toolkit 2.0 also includes sample code for remotely accessing Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) recordsets.
You should move your applications from RDS to the .NET Framework SOAP or SOAP toolkit.
Jet and Replication Objects (JRO)
The Microsoft Jet OLE DB Provider and other related components were removed from MDAC 2.6. Microsoft has deprecated the Microsoft Jet Engine, and plans no new releases or service packs for this component. As a result, the Jet and Replication Objects (JRO) is deprecated.
AppleTalk and Banyan Vines SQL Network Libraries
The AppleTalk, Banyan Vines, ServerNet, LPC (dbmslpcn.dll), and Giganet SQL network libraries are deprecated. If you are using any of these technnologies, you should modify your applications to use one of the other SQL network libraries, such as TCP/IP.
16-bit ODBC Support
If you are using 16-bit data sources, you should migrate to a 32-bit data source. 16-bit functionality is deprecated and is being removed from most operating systems; see Knowledge base article 896458 for more information.
Microsoft OLEDB Provider for Oracle and Microsoft ODBC driver for Oracle
If you are using Oracle data sources, you should migrate to the Oracle-supplied provider and driver. Microsoft OLEDB Provider for Oracle (msdaora.dll) and Microsoft ODBC driver for Oracle (msorcl32.dll) are built by using Oracle Call Interface (OCI) version 7. Oracle no longer supports applications that use OCI version 7 calls, and these technologies are deprecated.
OLEDB Simple Provider (MSDAOSP)
MSDAOSP is deprecated. The Windows DAC/MDAC SDK includes sample providers; you should use code from these samples.
ODBC Setup
ODBCConf.dll and ODBCConf.exe are used to help set up ODBC drivers. These components are deprecated in the setup of your programs; set the registry keys to configure your drivers.
ODBC Cursor Engine
ODBC Cursor Engine (ODBCCR32.dll) provides limited client-side cursoring of data, and has been deprecated. Microsoft has now released the .NET DataSet and the ADO cursor engine, which are better client-side cursor engines. Also your application can use server side cursor implementations as a replacement technology.
OLE DB Interface Remoting
OLEDB Interface remoting (oledbpr.dll) was an attempt to allow OLE DB providers to run out of process. There are number of problems that make interface remoting for OLE DB error prone. The interface remoting parts of OLE DB were never documented. Interface remoting is deprecated.