That's true, for anything "unsupported" (before Win2K SP4) MDAC deployment is still an issue. I assume people use some sort of installer logic to detect before deploying MDAC and Jet now (since Jet was unbundled back around MDAC 2.5). Really old machines (Win95) also need DCOM deployed before MDAC can be updated.

If you use a Windows Installer package (.MSI) Microsoft offers this: FILE: Install DCOM and MDAC Through a Windows Installer Package. To check for an MDAC after 2.1 though you'll have to modify and comple the C source.

It is probably also possible to modify the Setup1.exe use by PDW to do the necessary checks and install the necessary set of components, but this means including the DCOM95/98, MDAC 2.x, and if needed Jet 4.0 packages when you distribute your application. This gets more complicated, since Jet comes in different flavors for different OSs and each takes a separate installer package: MDAC Downloads.