Which database application for personal use

I've fiddled around with databases for years going all the way back to Paradox over 20 years ago. But I never really got any good at it. I have Office 2007 on a Win XP system, soon to be upgraded to Win 7.

I have a bunch of little personal applications that I am currently doing in Excel or Word tables, such as keeping track of various collections. They would be much better in a database. I know there are shareware applications for most of these tasks, but I also want to learn a database application.

I have Access 2007 with Office. Is there anything better for my fairly simple needs?

One little complication is that I might want to be able to create an executable app (.exe) that I could give to family members or friends that would run on their Windows machines without them having to install the development IDE.

Assuming that the answer is to use Access, at least to get started, what's the best way to learn how to do it right?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Access should be ok for personal use, and can get sql server express (free) if you like to try real rdbms.

Sorry, I should have posted this to the Access forum.