SQL CE vs Jet in winforms application

I have a legacy desktop application using JET for the database. The application needs to be a开发者_如何学Cble to access the database file from a network drive. Should I migrate the data access to SQL CE (or SQL Lite), or leave it in JET? Maximum table row size is around 50000.

You definitely shouldn't use SQL CE in this situation. It doesn't allow multiple connections from a network share. For details, and ways to avoid corruption, see this page.

SQLite would work in this situation. Otherwise, you can always leave it in its current form, and use the Office 2010 Database Engine. Another option would be to use SQL Server Express.

50K records is quite easy for Jet so long as sorting and criteria fields are properly indexed. Also one rule in the Access world is to keep a connection open at all times to improve performance if multiple users are using the database file. I would assume this rule holds true in other environments.

If you have more than 15-25 users updating the data then I'd suggest going to a product such as SQL Server Express. Of course if you stay with Jet 4.0/DAO 3.6 it's built into the Windows operating system since Windows 2000 so it doesn't need any dependencies. SQL Server Express would require an install on a PC somewhere.