Database Compare (Office 2013)

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Applies to: Office Professional Plus 2013, Office 365 ProPlus, Excel 2013, Access 2013

Get an overview of Database Compare. This includes prerequisite components that must be installed before you can use it.

In addition to the server applications—Microsoft Audit and Control Management Server 2013 and Microsoft Discovery and Risk Assessment Server 2013—Office includes several desktop applications that you can use to assess Excel workbooks and Access databases. One of these desktop applications is Database Compare, which is available with Office Professional Plus 2013 or Office 365 for enterprises.

You can use Database Compare to compare two Access 2013 databases (or two versions of the same Access 2013 database) and see differences in structure between the databases. Database Compare does not track changes to the data. You can use Database Compare to identify structural changes, additions, deletions, renamed objects, and potential issues in the databases.

Opening and using Database Compare

Database Compare is installed automatically when you install Office Professional Plus 2013. However, certain addition components must be installed before people can use Database Compare. Otherwise, people will get error messages when they attempt to use Database Compare for the first time.

To install the necessary components for Database Compare

  1. As a local administrator on the user’s computer, open a web browser, and visit Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2.

    Download and install Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2.

  2. Open a web browser, and visit Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable 2008.

    Download and install Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable 2008.

  3. Make sure that .NET Framework 4.0 is installed.

  4. Restart the computer.

At this point, Database Compare is ready to use.

To open and use Database Compare

  1. Depending on which version of Windows you are using, take one of the following steps:

    • If you are using Windows 7, choose Start, choose All Programs, choose Microsoft Office 2013, choose Office 2013 Tools, and then choose

      Database Compare 2013.

    • If you are using Windows 8, from the Home screen, start to type Database Compare, and then choose the tile that says Database Compare 2013.

    Database Compare opens.

  2. Select two Access databases to compare, and then click Compare.

  3. Use the Results tab to view information about the databases.

For more information about Database Compare, see Basic tasks in Database Compare 2013 (Office.com).

See also

Spreadsheet Controls
Spreadsheet Compare (Office 2013)
Inquire (Office 2013)