I ran into this problem when trying to import an excel spreadsheet into a Microsoft 2012 SQL Server. It was a new instance and not much was installed on it. It didn’t know what to do with the excel spreadsheet.

I got the following error:
The ‘Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0’ provider is not registered on the local machine (System Data)

The solution was easy. All you need to do is download and install the following file from Microsoft.

Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 Redistributable

Download the regular exe, not the 64-bit version. The SQL server was a 64-bit version, I installed it but did not work.

Once you install the code you should be able to import the file. No need for a server reboot.