One major advantage of the OLE DB Driver 17 is that it installs side-by-side with older versions. You can have Driver 18, Driver 17, and even legacy SQLNCLI10 installed simultaneously without conflict.
Provider=MSOLEDBSQL (latest) or Provider=MSOLEDBSQL.1 (v18). For v17, use Provider=MSOLEDBSQL as well (since v19 uses MSOLEDBSQL19). Check Microsoft documentation for exact ProgID.Microsoft OLE DB Driver 17 for SQL Server (x64) is a native OLE DB provider that enables high-performance access to SQL Server from applications using OLE DB interfaces. It replaces older Microsoft OLE DB drivers and restores Microsoft’s support for OLE DB after a period when Microsoft focused on other data access technologies. download microsoft ole db driver 17 for sql server -x64-
While Microsoft OLE DB Driver 18 and 19 exist, version 17 is still critically important for organizations that: The Definitive Guide to Downloading Microsoft OLE DB