Access Security Problem 1

[ringo9]

I am new to creating databases and was trying to set up security (through the wizard). I had made a copy of my database on an entirely separate drive and was working on that one. Now, when I open any database, no matter what drive, it seems to apply the security to it. What did I do wrong, and how do I delete the security definitions completely?

Thanks.

 

[mpastore]

You most likely joined a workgroup other than the default when using the wizard. You can unjoin with the WRKGADM.EXE. Look for it under the office folder.

Check for help on workgroup;administrator; for more information on how to manage this. Security is a pretty intense topic at first but very worthwhile to learn.

Incidentally, you can have multiple workgroup files that define different security schemes for different applications. These can be associated with a specific database via the shortcut command line switch. See help for details.

Mike Pastore

Hats off to (Roy) Harper

 

[ringo9]

Thanks, I found that file, but when I click on it I get choices of Create, Join or Exit. I'm afraid to click on create or join as to worsen my problem. Am I missing something?

 

[mpastore]

You should see the name of the workgroup you are currently in when you run this program... something.mdw.

What do you see?

Mike Pastore

Hats off to (Roy) Harper

 

[ringo9]

Workgroup says v:\ACCESS97\WORKDIR\SYSTEM.MDW. The v:\ is one of our network drives.

 

[mpastore]

Ok,

You can probably join the workgroup on your local PC to get around this. Look in \windows or \winnt\system32 and join the system.mdw there. My guess is the one on your v: drive has groups in it.

If you join the one from your PC your should not get the login prompt any more.

If you can't find the system.mdw then you can just create your own and use that for development.



Mike Pastore

Hats off to (Roy) Harper

 

[ringo9]

Ok, Thanks, I'll try that. One more question. It puts some strange tables into any database that I open/create. Here one of the names MSysRelationships. They are linked to that v:\drive mdw database and I cann't delete them. Are they going to screw something up in the future, or are they just behind the scene's tables that people don't ususally see?

Thanks.

 

[mpastore]

You would not want to delete those tables even if you could, they are MS Access meta-data tables that contain object information.

ringo, what I think you need to do it pick up a book on MS Access. I strongly recommend F. Scott Barker. He writes in a very clear fashion and will explain a lot of the concepts you are dealing with.

I'm a little concerned that you are doing security without a good understanding of how it works. There is a chance that you will end up getting completely locked out of your database at some point if you do not have a good method of structuring security and maintaning it. Believe me, this would be one of the worse days of your professional life.

Good luck, and get the book.

Mike Pastore

Hats off to (Roy) Harper

 

[ringo9]

Thanks for the concern. Actually I am scheduled to take a level 3 class next month. Everything I've done so far has been ok because for anything new and not sure of have copied the database to my C:\drive just to be certain. I didn't know that this security thing would be different and effect Access as a whole.

Don't worry, I'm not going to do any more with the security until at least after my class.

Thanks for all your help.