I have read myself in circles for days prior to posting this question, including all AI engines. Pardon this post again. I am looking for a fresh perspective.
I have this powershell script that works properly on my local computer. I have moved it to a server, installed Office 2016, ensured 2010 access database engine is installed (2007 was installed also as a desperate attempt). I have checked the registry and I see this
Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0
This is the connection string
# Connection string for Access ACCDB database
$connectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=$DB_FILE;Persist Security Info=False;"
This is what the control panel shows
This is a windows 10 VM. I have tried running with elevated privileges
The ACEOLDDB.DLL is located here in both office14 and office16 folders C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared
The registry shows the ACE engine in these location
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Access Connectivity Engine\Engines\ACE