Hi Micah. Honestly, I have to claim ignorance on two of your issues. (A) I don't use 64-bit Access at all. Here's why. (B) I haven't played with the Runtime Tools since 2016. In fact, a quick Google search shows that Microsoft hasn't updated them since then. So I'm not sure what happens with the latest edition of Access. I've been meaning to play with it to find out. Regarding (C) that is a good idea. A Visual Studio project with an Access backend database would work better. It would have a smaller footprint and be easier to install. However, you're going to miss out on a lot of functionality that Access Forms/Reports have built in. If your database is simple, however, it might not be an issue.

Thank you Rick for your guidance.
You need to try out deployment of your access database on computers with 64-bit office (in fact, by default when you buy office these days, the 64bit office is installed which i remember wasn't the case about 3 years ago). Prepare for some surprises. Try installing runtime as well.

Yeah, I've played around with it. Feature-wise it's pretty much the same thing. Most people don't NEED a 64-bit database. If your requirements are that heavy, use SQL Server for the back-end. But you're right - Microsoft is defaulting the install to 64-bit now, and more and more people are getting it because they don't know any better. There are some tricks you can do in your VBA code to make pretty much everything run under 64-bit, but some of the libraries are 32-bit only. I'll be addressing this in time.