password problem (aka, what the holy-heck am i supposed to do now?)

[jermadem]

ok, so here's my problem. i was experimenting with passwords and levels of user access and all that sort of thing. anyways, i thought what i was doing was just going to affect the test database i had open. but, after changing and re-changing the admin password and the user login password i created, i've totally lost track of what the right password and login are. and now, no database will open at all without asking me for a login and password. i don't know how to login as a user or as the Admin account. so i'm stuck being unable to use Access at all at this point.

i tried uninstalling it and re-installing, but that hasn't solved the problem. it has been suggested that there is a registry key or something that's keeping track of the security settings.

is there some way to get rid of this? or perhaps another solution?

thanks

 

[smercer]

I find that having a lock down on the database depending on who has the right windows login name is good because the user does not have to enter their username and password more then once.

eg you could have a table of who can access the restricted parts of your database and in your macro "autoexec"in your conditions type this:

This is for when your user is a restricted user:

DLookUp("Unrestricted","tbl_Usernames_and_Passwords","[User_name]= '" & Environ("UserName") & "'")=False

And this is for a user without restrictions:

DLookUp("Unrestricted","tbl_Usernames_and_Passwords","[User_name]= '" & Environ("UserName") & "'")

you would have both of these in on different lines in the macro and it all works

Hope this helps next time you want to think about security settings

 

[jermadem]

thank you!

If you made changes to system.mdw, you will need to get an unaltered copy from someone. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER modify system.mdw. It is the default workgroup. If you want to secure a db, make sure you read the Security FAQ published by Microsoft and understand it. We haven't seen this question in a while but if you search the archives you'll find a great many posts along the lines of HELP! I locked myself out of ALL my databases.

Usually all you'll need to do is to get the unmodified version of system.mdw and put it in the correct default directory for your version of Access. You would then join the workgroup and that will "magically" free you from security hell. Read the other posts for why and don't attempt security again without a complete reading of the Security FAQ.

thank you!! problem solved! lesson learned.