Excel 97-2003 Xls files with ACE OLEDB 12.0 using Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0

Connection string

This Microsoft ACE OLEDB 12.0 connection string can be used for connections to Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002 and Excel 2003.

You can use this connection string to use the Office 2007 OLEDB driver (ACE 12.0) to connect to older 97-2003 Excel workbooks.

Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=c:\myFolder\myOldExcelFile.xls;
Extended Properties
="Excel 8.0;
HDR=YES";

"HDR=Yes;" indicates that the first row contains columnnames, not data. "HDR=No;" indicates the opposite.