Security Issue 2

[HebieBug]

Have been working for some time on a database which is secured in the Security wizard. Have user accounts ect all setup and working fine. Only thing is that if you want to open a database which was created before the time of the security being installed or bringing another database form another computer or internet then you get an error message about security issues and the database can;t be opened.
Know for a fact that the database that we are trying to open is not secured..
Anyone have any ideas about the security manager and ways of working around it.
Thanx

 

[RickSpr]

I expect this is happening because you are still connected to the workgroup that was created for the secured database. To open a non-secured database, you need to go back to the workgroup it was created under, namely, the default workgroup installed with Access.

The need to do this is the result of the fact that Access security is always turned on, but if you use the default workgroup, you'll be using a default user id (Admin) and password (blank) that have full privileges on everything. When you created your secured database, the Security Wizard created a new workgroup in which Admin doesn't have these privileges (otherwise anybody with a fresh copy of Access could circumvent your security). You had to join this new workgroup (using the Workgroup Administrator program) in order to access your secured database. But the Admin account in this workgroup no longer has permissions on anything. So you have to re-join the original workgroup before opening older databases.

This is a little annoying, so there's a shortcut to help you avoid having to use the Workgroup Administrator. Look in the help file for "Startup command-line options". You'll find there is a /wrkgrp option that lets you specify the workgroup file to be used. You can create a Windows shortcut that starts Access to open the database using a particular workgroup file. Here's an example of what you would put in the shortcut:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\msaccess.exe C:\mydatabase.mdb /wrkgrp c:\windows\mywrkgrpfile.mdw
For the original workgroup file, substitute C:\Windows\System.mdw

Good luck!
Rick Sprague