Can anyone please point me in the direction of a user friendly/free programme which can run an access file from a CD???

damien,

In short, you will have serious trouble running a database from a CD.
The CD is "probably" read-only. Even if you don't modify data, Access
will not be able to open the ".ldb" file it requires.

Wayne

If the db is for your own use then I suggest that you get a USB thumbnail [flash] drive. Great gadget that lets you use [modify] a db anywhere you have a computer with a USB drive. As Wayne mentioned, you will not be able to open [modify] the db from a CD even if the CD is rewritable because the db will open in a read-only state because the record locking file [.ldb] can not be created.

I didn't really go into any depth with my initial post - I would like a read only database to start up as soon as I put the CD in, a start-up form will appear with hyperlinks to other files on the disk as well as other items on the database.

The information was merely to provide data to a user to view and not to edit etc.

To run an Access database, you need to have either the retail or runtime version of Access installed. There is no free/shareware "reader" program. The runtime version of Access is Access without the database window. All you will see are your forms and reports.

As long as the users have the retail version of Access installed on their computer you can do what you want by creating a custom AutoRun.inf file. You can create and edit an INF file using the Windows Notepad.exe program.

Below is exactly what the contents of the AutoRun.inf file needs to have to auto-launch your database. My example has the SampleDB.mdb database file on the root of the CD.[autorun]
open = SampleDB.mdbThis also assumes that the users PC has the auto-launch feature for CD's turned on.

HTH