Require users to log on to an Access database

When you secure a database, you create user accounts in a Microsoft Access workgroup, and then assign permissions for the database and its objects to those user accounts and to any group accounts to which they belong. Until you activate the logon procedure for a workgroup, Access automatically logs on all users at startup using the predefined Admin user account. If you want users to have only the permissions associated with their own accounts, you can have them log on by using their accounts. Users log on to Microsoft Access by typing a user name and password in the Logon dialog box.

1. Join the workgroup whose logon procedure you want to activate.

   How?

   Important   If you are setting up user-level security and need to make sure that your workgroup and its permissions can't be duplicated, you should make sure the workgroup information file that defines the workgroup you're joining has been created with a unique workgroup ID (WID). If such a workgroup information file doesn't exist, you should create one.

   1. Start Microsoft Access.
   2. On the Tools menu, point to Security, and then click Workgroup Administrator.
   3. In the Workgroup Administrator dialog box, click Join.
   4. Type the path and name of the workgroup information file that defines the Microsoft Access workgroup you want to join, and then click OK, or click Browse and then use the Select Workgroup Information File dialog box to locate the workgroup information file.

      The next time you start Microsoft Access, it uses the user and group accounts and passwords stored in the workgroup information file for the workgroup you joined.

2. On the Tools menu, point to Security, and then click User And Group Accounts.
3. Click the Users tab, and make sure that the predefined Admin user account is highlighted in the Name box.
4. Click the Change Logon Password tab, and then type a new password in the New Password box. Don't type anything in the Old Password box.

   Guidelines for passwords

   User names can range from 1 to 20 characters, and can include alphabetic characters, accented characters, numbers, spaces, and symbols, with the following exceptions:

   • The characters " \ [ ] : | < > + = ; , . ? *
   • Leading spaces
   • Control characters (ASCII 10 through ASCII 31)

   Note   Passwords are case-sensitive.

5. Verify the password by typing it again in the Verify box, and then click OK.

   The Logon dialog box is displayed the next time any member of the workgroup that you joined in step 2 starts Microsoft Access and opens a database. Each user will use the password created in step 5 to open the database. Once in the database, they will have the permissions assigned to their group or user accounts. If no user accounts are currently defined for that workgroup, the Admin user is the only valid account at this point.