About enabling the System Administrator (SA) user name in an Access project

Note  The hyperlink in this topic goes to the Web. You can switch back to Help at any time.

When the Microsoft SQL Sever 2000 Desktop Engine (formerly called the Microsoft Database Engine or MSDE) is installed on Microsoft Windows NT computers, it is installed with Windows NT Authentication implemented (this feature is also known as integrated security). When a user connects to the SQL Server database through a Microsoft Access project, the connection is enabled through a Windows NT user account. SQL Server verifies that the account name and password were validated when the user logged on to the system and grants access to the database, without requiring a separate logon name or password.

With the default installation of the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine with integrated security, the user must be a member of the administrator group for the machine on which the Access project resides. This makes it difficult to allow other users to gain access to the Access project.

There is currently no simple way for the system administrator to create new logon accounts to the locally installed SQL Server database except by using SQL Tools or Transact-SQL (TSQL) commands. See the Microsoft Developer Network Web site for more information on TSQL.

You can change the security mode for accessing the SQL Server database on a computer running Windows NT. By setting properties from the View menu, you can enable mixed mode security. Mixed mode security allows access to the database from either a Windows NT account or through a SQL Server account by using the default system administrator (SA) account with no password.

Using the default SA account, users can access the SQL Server database through the Access project without any additional security requirements. The administrator of the SQL Server can also add additional security by changing the default SA account password.

• The Access project must be connected to a SQL Server 7.0 (or later) database or a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine.
• The SQL Server database must be running on a Windows NT platform.
• The SQL Server must be running on the same computer as the Access project.
• The current Windows NT user must be an Administrator for the computer.
• The current SQL Server user must be a member of the System Administrator role.

Note   After changing the security mode, it is strongly recommended that the SA password be changed by using the Set Login Password command (on the Tools menu, point to Security).