Because many applications use Microsoft Jet, this guide is directed toward a large audience of developers and programmers. If you are leafing through this guide, chances are you already have at least a rough idea of what Microsoft Jet is and where it is used. As of this writing, the following applications use various versions of Microsoft Jet.
| Application | Microsoft Jet version |
| Microsoft Access 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Microsoft Access 1.1 | 1.1 |
| Microsoft Access 2.0 | 2.0 and 2.5 |
| Microsoft Access 95 | 3.0 |
| Microsoft Access 97 | 3.5 |
| Visual Basic 3.0 | 1.1 (or 2.0 using the Visual Basic compatibility layer) |
| Visual Basic 4.0 (16-bit) | 2.5 |
| Visual Basic 4.0 (32-bit) | 3.0 |
| Visual Basic 5.0 | 3.5 |
| Microsoft Excel 95 | 3.0 |
| Microsoft Excel 97, Microsoft PowerPoint® 97, and Microsoft Word 97 | 3.5 |
| Microsoft Project 4.1 and Microsoft Project 95 | 3.0 |
| Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) versions 4.x | 3.0 |
| MFC version 5.0 | 3.5 |
| Microsoft Internet Information Server 3.0 | 3.5 |
Although this guide will be most helpful if you are primarily developing database applications in Microsoft Access, Visual Basic, or Visual C++, it also provides information that you can apply when developing applications that require database access from Microsoft Excel 97 and other applications that support Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) version 5.0.