You can prevent unauthorized users from opening a database by assigning it a password. Anyone attempting to open the database will be asked for the password. If they enter it correctly, they will have full access to the database; if they don’t, the database won’t open.
Tip
You can use anything as a password as long as you remember these rules. Passwords are case-sensitive and can range from 1 to 20 characters. You can include letters, accented characters, numbers, spaces, and most symbols. A password can’t start with a space, and it can’t include any of the following: [ ] : | < > + = ; , . ? *. A good password should not be a word found in a dictionary, and it should include upper and lower case letters, and symbols or numbers.
A database password is easy to set, and it is better than no protection at all in that it keeps most honest people out of the database. However, many inexpensive password recovery utilities are available, theoretically to help people recover a lost password. Anyone can buy one of these utilities and "recover" the password to your database. Also, the same password works for all users, and nothing prevents one person from giving the password to many other people. As a result, simple password protection is most appropriate for a single-user database. If your database is on a network server and can be opened by more than one person at a time (multi-user), you should consider setting up a workgroup and assigning a security account password.
When setting or removing a password, you must open a database for exclusive use, meaning that nobody else can have the database open. This will not be a problem for the database used in the exercise, but if you want to set or remove a password for a real database that is on a network, you will need to make sure nobody else is using it.
In this exercise, you will assign a password to the GardenCo database.
BE SURE TO start Access before beginning this exercise, but don’t open the GardenCo database yet.
USE the GardenCo database in the practice file folder for this topic. This practice file is located in the My DocumentsMicrosoft PressAccess 2003 SBSSecurePassword folder and can also be accessed by clicking Start/All Programs/Microsoft Press/Access 2003 Step by Step.
On the Access toolbar, click the Open button to display the Open dialog box.
Navigate to the My DocumentsMicrosoft PressAccess 2003 SBSSecurePassword folder, click GardenCo, and then click the down arrow to the right of the Open button to display the menu.
On the Tools menu, point to Security, and click Set Database Password.
The Set Database Password dialog box appears.
In the Verify box, type
Nos!Len, and then click OK.Tip
To remove the password, repeat steps 2 through 4 to open the database exclusively (you will have to enter the password), and on the Tools menu point to Security, and click Unset Database Password. Type the password in the dialog box, and press
. Access removes the password, and anyone can then open the database.Close and reopen the database.
The Password Required dialog box appears.
Type something other than the correct password, and click OK.
Access warns you that the password is not valid.
Click OK to close the message, type the correct password (
Nos!Len), and then click OK again.Acknowledge the safety warning, if necessary.
The database opens.
CLOSE the GardenCo database.