connecting CF8 to MS Access

If you build your .mdb files with the older Ms-Access (circa 2000 and below), it didn't support Unicode Standard encoding. For newer .mdb's files, it then supports Unicode. Hence, 2 drivers where provided by DataDirect. For more info, you can read on this link: http://www.datadirect.com/developer/odbc/unicode/index.ssp

HTH.

whats the difference between MS Access and the one with unicode.?

When creating a datasource inside CFADMIN, try using the "Apache Derby Embeded" or the "Microsoft Access with Unicode" driver.

HTH.

yes:
i am using windows vista.
its a 32bit system.
and i have apache running.
but apart from that there is not much more.

Do you have more details (OS, what you've tried, etc.)? If you are on a 64 bit OS I have a work around (not pretty), but I'm not sure if it's supported or maybe has been disabled since the beta version.