Preliminary Preparations in VS .NET

Creating Code 128 Code Set B in VS .NET Preliminary Preparations

Before the wizard can successfully perform its task, you must be logged on as the owner of the database that you want to secure, or you must be logged on to the same workgroup file you used when you created the database and you must be a member of the Admins group in that workgroup. Remember that one of the key steps is creating a new workgroup with a unique workgroup ID; this should not match the workgroup you used to create the database. Also, you were probably logged on as Admin when you created the database. You can t make a database owned by Admin secure, so you need to assign a new owner as well. The Security Wizard in Access 2003 lets you secure your database even when you re logged on as any user in the Admins group in the original workgroup that was used when the database was created. You can also use the Security Wizard when you re logged on as Admin in any workgroup as long as Admin owns all the objects. When you try to use the wizard in the latter situation, the wizard forces you to create a new workgroup. The wizard transfers ownership of your database to a new user ID in the new workgroup.

Securing Your Database Note You can also create a new workgroup and a new non-Admin user ID in the Admins group of that workgroup before you start the wizard, but your new user ID must own the database, or the wizard will fail when it tries to reassign ownership. It helps you understand Access security better if you first create a new workgroup, define at least one new user ID, and remove the Admin user from the Admins group. To create a new workgroup, you need to run the Workgroup Administrator. Start Access, choose Security on the Tools menu, and then choose Workgroup Administrator on the submenu. The Workgroup Administrator starts, as shown in Figure 30-4.

Notice that the Workgroup Administrator displays your name and company information in its opening dialog box. This is the same information that the installation program used to create your default workgroup file, so it wouldn t be difficult for anyone who has access to your machine to duplicate your original file. You can also see the full path name of the workgroup file to which you are currently joined. (Unless you have used the Workgroup Administrator since you installed Office, this is the workgroup file that the setup program created.) As shown in Figure 30-4, your default file is called System.mdw, which can be found in a subfolder of your Documents and Settings folder. If you have a different workgroup file already built, you can click the Join button to open a dialog box in which you can specify the location of that file. A Browse button in the resulting dialog box makes it easy to locate the file.

Be sure to note the location of your default System.mdw file when you run the Workgroup Administrator for the first time. You ll need to run the Workgroup Administrator again after you have finished working through the examples in this chapter and locate this file to rejoin your original workgroup. Also, the default location for System.mdw (when you had no previous version of Access on your machine when you installed Office 2003) is C:\Documents and Settings\<your Windows logon ID>\Application Data\Microsoft\Access, but Application Data is a hidden folder. You might need to open Windows Explorer, choose Folder Options from the Tools menu, and select the Show hidden files and folders option on the View tab of the Folder Options dialog box.