Someone asked about 64-bit...

Linked servers from SQL Server still won't work if SQL is 64-bit as you're trying to have it use 32-bit OLEDB/ODBC drivers. There's no thunking like there was with Win32/16.

SSIS is the nice workaround as, even on a 64-bit machine, you can run your packages using a 32-bit runtime if desired. This allows for connections to FoxPro databases, etc.

Actually, read http://blogs.msdn.com/psssql/archive/2010/01/21/how-to-get-a-x64-version-of-jet.aspx as it gives a bit of an overview and a link to the new Office 2010-based ACE driver that is x64 (the link is to the beta - I guess there's now an RTM version available?). That ACE driver should let you access Access and Excel files, although I haven't tried it.

Now if only they'd do one for FoxPro....... 🙂 (we link to a number of third party systems that use FoxPro databases)