I have been successfully using, updating, and programming our Access mailing database for 5 years now. I have made a number of changes over the years to help it run more smoothly. Up until very recently, we were operating Access 2000 on an old computer using the Win98 OS. Guided by the Microsoft Access Security UberFAQ, I had set up user and group permissions such that regular users (my staff of about 8 people) could search, view, and print addresses, labels, and both Access and Word reports connected with the database, but could not make any significant changes to it. A user who was a member of the Admins group (user “Jen”, i.e. me!)) could basically change anything on the database; primarily I updated the addresses, instructions, and forms to maintain accuracy and improve the effectiveness of the system.
In order to insure against any computer crashes and to enable the ‘re-constituting’ of the database in the event we obtained a new computer, we backed-up all the database files onto the TSM backup system on the Mniversity mainframe.
After a long period of nursing along our old computer, my boss provided me with the funds to purchase a new one, which I did. The new system runs WinXP Pro, and is much faster and less prone to seizing. When we set up the new computer I restored the contents of the old computer onto a separate partition on the hard drive, and then copied all the database stuff onto its own little partition on the hard drive. As I expected, I had lost all the security settings in the restore – I had restored the database once before when we had to have the hard drive on our old computer re-imaged, so I knew what would happen. However, instead of resetting to a sort of neutral state in which the “Admin” user could do everything and I could start rebuilding the security from scratch (a lengthy but do-able process), I found myself in a very different situation.
When I open the mailing database, the system:
· does not ask for a password;
· automatically assumes I’m the “Admin” user;
When I open the Tools>Security>User & Group Accounts dialogue box, I discover that the “Admin” user is the only user and is a member of both the Admins and Users groups.
However, when I open the Tools>Security>User & Group Permissions dialogue box, I discover:
· the system will allow the “Admin” user (the only user on the system, now) to view the “Admin” user’s permissions;
· the system will not allow the “Admin” user to change the “Admin” user’s permissions because the “Admin” user does not have Administer permission;
· the “Admin” user is not allowed even to view the permissions of the Groups;
· The “Admin” user has no permissions checked;
· Given that a user’s permissions are the least restrictive of all the groups he/she belongs to, I think that means that the Admins group probably has nothing checked at all (but I can’t find out);
· The owner of all the database items (forms, reports, etc) is set to <Unknown>;
What this means in effect is that I can view the forms, I can view & print the reports so long as they are Access reports, and I can view and print the labels, but I cannot use Access to access (sorry for the pun) the Word reports which up until now have always worked just fine. I can get at the Word reports by manually finding them via the Windows folder system and opening them directly with Word. I cannot Read-Design or format anything. When I print the labels, the formatting is slightly off – it’s as though the system thinks the labels are just slightly vertically larger than they were, so every so often I have to pause printing and re-align the tractor feed to the top of a label, but this may be a result of the interaction of our OS upgrade from Win 98 to Win XP pro with our dot matrix label printer (cheap & effective!). I can’t check the label dimensions because (of course) as the “Admin” user, I have no permissions (grrrrr!). Perhaps most problematically, I cannot update the addresses in the database.
We’ve been limping along with this only-partially-functional-version of the database for about a month and a half now, because I’m also the Reception Supervisor as well as the resident database expert, and I had to train a whole bunch of new staff. We really need to update the database to do our big yearly catalogue mail-out and the University ITS helpdesk doesn’t have anyone with enough expertise to solve this problem. I’m hoping someone out here does!
I believe I have all the WIF info from the previously secured version of the database (pre-TSM-restore), as well as the Security Wizard report. I have the entire contents of the old computer hard drive in a separate partition on my new computer. I tried to write down everything that even seemed like it might be relevant/required should I run into a problem like this. I’m good with computers and have taught myself so pretty complex Access programming. However, I am now officially stumped, and I am throwing out this lifeline in hopes that someone can rescue me. Thank you all in advance for any help anyone can give me!
Jennifer Radford Gibson
In order to insure against any computer crashes and to enable the ‘re-constituting’ of the database in the event we obtained a new computer, we backed-up all the database files onto the TSM backup system on the Mniversity mainframe.
After a long period of nursing along our old computer, my boss provided me with the funds to purchase a new one, which I did. The new system runs WinXP Pro, and is much faster and less prone to seizing. When we set up the new computer I restored the contents of the old computer onto a separate partition on the hard drive, and then copied all the database stuff onto its own little partition on the hard drive. As I expected, I had lost all the security settings in the restore – I had restored the database once before when we had to have the hard drive on our old computer re-imaged, so I knew what would happen. However, instead of resetting to a sort of neutral state in which the “Admin” user could do everything and I could start rebuilding the security from scratch (a lengthy but do-able process), I found myself in a very different situation.
When I open the mailing database, the system:
· does not ask for a password;
· automatically assumes I’m the “Admin” user;
When I open the Tools>Security>User & Group Accounts dialogue box, I discover that the “Admin” user is the only user and is a member of both the Admins and Users groups.
However, when I open the Tools>Security>User & Group Permissions dialogue box, I discover:
· the system will allow the “Admin” user (the only user on the system, now) to view the “Admin” user’s permissions;
· the system will not allow the “Admin” user to change the “Admin” user’s permissions because the “Admin” user does not have Administer permission;
· the “Admin” user is not allowed even to view the permissions of the Groups;
· The “Admin” user has no permissions checked;
· Given that a user’s permissions are the least restrictive of all the groups he/she belongs to, I think that means that the Admins group probably has nothing checked at all (but I can’t find out);
· The owner of all the database items (forms, reports, etc) is set to <Unknown>;
What this means in effect is that I can view the forms, I can view & print the reports so long as they are Access reports, and I can view and print the labels, but I cannot use Access to access (sorry for the pun) the Word reports which up until now have always worked just fine. I can get at the Word reports by manually finding them via the Windows folder system and opening them directly with Word. I cannot Read-Design or format anything. When I print the labels, the formatting is slightly off – it’s as though the system thinks the labels are just slightly vertically larger than they were, so every so often I have to pause printing and re-align the tractor feed to the top of a label, but this may be a result of the interaction of our OS upgrade from Win 98 to Win XP pro with our dot matrix label printer (cheap & effective!). I can’t check the label dimensions because (of course) as the “Admin” user, I have no permissions (grrrrr!). Perhaps most problematically, I cannot update the addresses in the database.
We’ve been limping along with this only-partially-functional-version of the database for about a month and a half now, because I’m also the Reception Supervisor as well as the resident database expert, and I had to train a whole bunch of new staff. We really need to update the database to do our big yearly catalogue mail-out and the University ITS helpdesk doesn’t have anyone with enough expertise to solve this problem. I’m hoping someone out here does!
I believe I have all the WIF info from the previously secured version of the database (pre-TSM-restore), as well as the Security Wizard report. I have the entire contents of the old computer hard drive in a separate partition on my new computer. I tried to write down everything that even seemed like it might be relevant/required should I run into a problem like this. I’m good with computers and have taught myself so pretty complex Access programming. However, I am now officially stumped, and I am throwing out this lifeline in hopes that someone can rescue me. Thank you all in advance for any help anyone can give me!
Jennifer Radford Gibson
