Engine Works
Under the hood of Alteryx: tips, tricks and how-tos.
Driver Updates
With the release of 11.7, Alteryx will be able to access .xls files again if you use the Access 32-bit 2010 driver.
What happened?!?!?!
The 2017-10-10 security patch from Microsoft unexpectedly impacted the Jet driver and 64-bit versions of the Access drivers. These drivers now have issues reading in certain data types. The following Windows versions were impacted:
| Windows | 7 | 8.1 | 10 Originial | 10 1511 | 10 1607 | 10 1703 (Creators) |
| Windows Server | 2008 R2 | 2012 | 2012 R2 | 2016 |
Basically, the Jet driver can't tell the difference between some data types, and it is trying to mismatch them.
But I can still access .xls...?
That's great! That means you are either on a version that wasn't impacted or you didn't install the patch. If that's the case, just don't install that patch until this gets resolved!
Well, I'm on one of those AND I have the patch. What do I have to do?
Head over to this page and install the 32-bit 2010 Access driver. Be sure to install the 32-bit version, because it matches the behavior of the pre-patch Jet driver perfectly. In fact, it matches so perfectly, we don't even check for the 64-bit version!
Once 11.7 is release, install the new Designer and start accessing those .xls files again!
