Create a security user account (MDB) - Access

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Create a security user account (MDB)

Applies to: Microsoft Office Access 2003

Note The information in this topic applies only to a Microsoft Access database (.mdb).

To complete this procedure, you must be logged on as a member of the Admins group

(Admins group: The system administrator's group account, which retains full permissions on all databases used by a workgroup. The Setup program automatically adds the default Admin user account to the Admins group.)

Note It is usually easier to manage security if you organize users into groups, and then assign permissions

(permissions: A set of attributes that specifies what kind of access a user has to data or objects in a database.)

to groups rather than to individual users.

Start Microsoft Access by using the workgroup
(workgroup: A group of users in a multiuser environment who share data and the same workgroup information file.)
in which you want to use the account.
Important The accounts you create for users must be stored in the workgroup information file
(workgroup information file: A file that Access reads at startup that contains information about the users in a workgroup. This information includes users' account names, their passwords, and the groups of which they are members.)
that those users will use. If you're using a different workgroup to create the database, change your workgroup before creating the accounts.
Open a database.
On the Tools menu, point to Security, and then click User And Group Accounts.
On the Users tab, click New.
In the New User/Group dialog box, type the name of the new account and a personal ID (PID)
(personal ID: A case-sensitive alphanumeric string that is 4 to 20 characters long and that Access uses in combination with the account name to identify a user or group in an Access workgroup.)
, and then click OK to create the new account, which is automatically added to the Users group
(Users group: The group account that contains all user accounts. Access automatically adds user accounts to the Users group when you create them.)
.
Caution Be sure to write down the exact account name and PID, including whether letters are uppercase or lowercase, and keep them in a secure place. If you ever have to re-create an account that has been deleted or created in a different workgroup, you must supply the same name and PID entries. If you forget or lose these entries, you can't recover them.

Notes

A user account name cannot be same as an existing group account name, and visa versa.
The PID entered in step 5 is not a password. Microsoft Access uses the PID and the user name as seeds for an encryption algorithm to generate an encrypted identifier for the user account
(user account: An account identified by a user name and personal ID (PID) that is created to manage the user's permissions to access database objects in an Access workgroup.)
.