Afraid your memory is a bit faulty.
There never was a product that could convert an MDB into an EXE. It really
isn't possible (nor would you really want to, since you would end up with a
self-modifying executable, since every time you stored data, you would be
changing the file, and the virus scanners would go crazy!)
You may be thinking of the Developer edition that allows you to package your
application (as either an MDB or MDE) together with a royalty-free run-time
version of Access. Any users who didn't have Access already installed would
be able to install the run-time version, and then could use your
application. Your application wasn't changed in any way, shape or form,
though.
It's gone through a few name changes over the years. With Access 2.0, you
needed the Access Developer's Toolkit (ADT) to get this. With Access 95, I
believe it was called the Access Developer's Kit (ADK). With Access 97, it
was bundled as part of the Office 97 Developer Edition (ODE) (which also
included a complete version of Office 97 Professional). With Office 2000, it
was part of the Microsoft Office 2000 Developer edition (MOD), or you could
purchase simply the Developer extensions if you already had Microsoft Office
2000 Professional. With Office XP, it was part of Microsoft Office XP
Developer edition (MOD).
With Office 2003, you need to purchase the following in order to create an
Access 2003 runtime application:
- Microsoft Access 2003
- Visual Studio Tools for Office 2003 (which includes the Access 2003
Developer Extensions)
The ADE is the product that gives you the license to deploy the 2003 runtime
components and you have to have Access 2003 installed in order to install
the ADE.
Unfortunately, Microsoft no longer sells previous versions of Access.
One possibility is to check out sites that specialize in old software
products, such as
http://www.emsps.com/oldtools/ or
http://recycledsoftware.com/
Another is to look at someplace like eBay to see whether anyone's trying to
see their old versions (Note, though, that products purchased this way
aren't always legal...)
Finally, under some circumstances Microsoft will downgrade your current
version to a previous version. There are some details about this at
http://www.microsoft.com/PERMISSION/copyrgt/cop-soft.htm#DOWNGRADE