Installation Guide

What you need

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit — Windows Server 2019 or later works too.
• Administrator rights on the machine, because the installer sets up a Windows service.
• Microsoft Access Database Engine, or Microsoft Access itself, already installed. This is the part that actually reads Access files, and no installer can bundle it. If you have Microsoft 365 or Access you already have it; otherwise install the free Access Database Engine redistributable first.
• One or more .accdb or .mdb files you want to query.

PostgreSQL itself is not a prerequisite. NG brings its own server with it, so there is nothing to install alongside it — and it works on a machine that has no PostgreSQL at all.

Download and run

The endpoint ships as a single file, MSAccess-Endpoint-ng-<version>-setup.exe, about 55 MB. Everything it needs is inside it.

⬇ Download the installer

Double-click it and approve the administrator prompt. It takes a minute or two, and the installing window reports each step as it happens.

The one question it asks

Besides the usual choice of where to install, the installer asks a single question of its own:

A client names a file when it connects, and only files inside the folder you choose can be opened — nothing outside it is reachable, however a client names it. The box comes filled in with your own user folder; change it if your databases live somewhere else.

Choose a folder that covers every database you intend to query. Anything beneath it counts as inside it; a folder on another drive does not.

What the installer does

In order, as the installing window reports them:

1. Checks the port is free. Nothing is installed if it is not — see below.
2. Installs the Microsoft VC++ runtime, if the machine does not already have it.
3. Creates the server's database — a new, empty PostgreSQL cluster that belongs to this installation alone.
4. Writes the server's configuration from what you chose: the port, the folder from the question above, and the extension that reads Access files.
5. Registers and starts the Windows service, so the server starts with the machine and survives a logout.
6. Opens the firewall for port 9432, so other machines can reach it.
7. Creates the client role and installs the extension, so a client naming an Access file gets an answer.

Where things go

Your Access files are not copied into any of these. They stay where they are, as ordinary Access files, and the endpoint reads them where they lie.

Port 9432 must be free

It stops rather than asking, and it never stops or removes another product's service on your behalf — that decision is yours. Stop whatever holds the port, then run the installer again.

If the older endpoint is installed but not running, the installer notes it and carries on — NG takes over from it in use, without removing it.

Connecting

When the installer has finished, the server is running and listening on port 9432. Connect any PostgreSQL client — psql, DBeaver, Power BI, Python, R, Excel's Power Query — and give it the path to your Access file where it expects a database name:

psql -h 127.0.0.1 -p 9432 -U postgres -d "C:\Data\Northwind.accdb"

From Python:

import psycopg
conn = psycopg.connect(host="127.0.0.1", port=9432, user="postgres",
                       dbname=r"C:\Data\Northwind.accdb")

The file stays an ordinary Access file throughout. Nothing is imported, and the endpoint never writes to it.

What it leaves alone

• Any PostgreSQL you already have. NG brings its own server and keeps to itself; your existing one is not touched, not upgraded and not reconfigured.
• Your Access files. They stay where they are, and they are never modified.
• The earlier MS Access Endpoint. It is detected and reported, never stopped and never removed.
• Your system's PATH and the registry. The installer writes no registry key of its own.

Upgrading

The installer does not yet recognise an installation it made earlier, so run it on a machine that does not already have NG — the upgrade path over an existing installation is still to come. At present, if you need to upgrade, simply remove the app and install the later version. No data is lost. Your Access files are unaffected either way.

Uninstalling

MS Access Endpoint NG has its own entry in Apps & features. Uninstalling stops and removes the service, then deletes the cluster, the firewall rule and the program files.

It deliberately leaves behind your Access files, the Microsoft VC++ runtime — other software may depend on it — and any other PostgreSQL on the machine.

Troubleshooting