Need Better Understanding Of system.mdw

  • Thread starter Thread starter LarryP
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LarryP

I guess I understand that system.mdw is a default workgroup file, but that's
about all I know. Here's my question: I'm helping some people set up one of
my databases (NO workgroup security involved), and one of them (ONLY one of
them) got a "can't find system.mdw" error. I've bumped into that once or
twice before, so I told her to create a new blank database, which I've been
told will create a system.mdw.

But here's the kicker: afterward I got curious and did a search on my own
computer, and I DON'T HAVE A SYSTEM.MDW ANYWHERE! Since I'm working in
Access all day, every day, that really freaked me out. What's it good for,
and why do some people run into this error while others don't?

Who can give me a words-of-one-syllable tutorial on this mysterious file?
 
When you decided to secure a database, at one point, it asked you if you want
to use a deault security file (affect all database on the PC) or create a
custom security.mdw file just to be used for this one database.

I would check what *.mdw file the db is looking for by selecting

Tools - Security - Workgroup Administrator...

It will list the what and where it is looking for. and go from there.


Here are 2 links that might be worth perusing

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305542
http://www.moretools.com/lessons/access_security.htm
--
Hope this helps,

Daniel Pineault
http://www.cardaconsultants.com/
For Access Tips and Examples: http://www.devhut.net
Please rate this post using the vote buttons if it was helpful.
 
An easy way of knowing where the current MDW file is

- go to the Immediate Window (Ctrl-G)

- type

?SysCmd(acSysCmdGetWorkgroupFile)

(complete with question mark)

- hit Enter.

The location of the MDW file will appear below.
 
Thanks, Doug, this cleared up the mystery of why I didn't have a system.mdw
-- apparently at some point when playing with workgroup security I must have
created system1.mdw, and that's what my Access is looking for now. (Although
I'll confess, when I searched yesterday I failed to tell it to include system
files, so got no results. Running a search just now I found both system.mdw
and system1.mdw.)

That leaves the question, though, of why some of my users get this "can't
find system.mdw" error while the vast majority don't. I can assure you that
none of them are likely to have ever done anything that would have affected
the default .mdw file, but once in a great while somebody gets that message
the first time they try to start up an Access database. I really hate to
have to talk them through the create-a-database-then-just-delete-it solution,
for most of them it sounds like some arcane computer geek mumbo-jumbo and
shakes their confidence in the whole idea of databases! If I can identify a
way to program around it when building a new database, I'll sure make it a
standard practice.
 
LarryP said:
That leaves the question, though, of why some of my users get this
"can't find system.mdw" error while the vast majority don't.
Click to expand...

Any chance that they have more than one Access version installed (including
runtimes)? Moving from one version to another can cause that error because
some versions expect to find system.mdw in a different location than others
do.
 
Possible, I guess. Our company is running 2003 right now, and our automatic
installer supposedly overwrites any vestiges of older versions, but from time
to time I find some little scrap somewhere in the program files, user
profiles, or registry. I'll certainly look into that as a possibility next
time it happens. In the current case, though, the user is halfway across the
continent, so I think I'll wait for the next one. Thanks for the idea.
 
That leaves the question, though, of why some of my users get this
"can't find system.mdw" error while the vast majority don't.
Click to expand...

When do they get that message? I can't think of a situation where
Access could possibly work if it can't find its workgroup file. My
guess is that the likeliest places they would encounter such an
error would be if they are launching Access from a desktop shortcut
with a workgroup commandline argument that was invalid. Either that
or there's a hardwired reference in code that is not valid on all
workstations.

Other than that, I can't think of a situation where'd they'd get any
kind of error about not being able to locate the workgroup file.
 
Or a permission problem: perhaps the workgroup file is in the Windows
folder, as it used to be, and the user can't create an LDB file there?

Actually, the Jet database system can work without a workgroup file,
because the Engine account is a Well Known Value and when it is
used no workgroup is required. I know that Access does begin to
start without using the command line security parameters, and I
assume that it is the Engine Account that it being used at start up.

Probably you need to have some kind of account to use to open the
MDW database, and it can't be the Admin account, because you
haven't opened the MDW database yet. I think there was also some
problem with Access a couple of years ago when the Well Known
Value for the some account changed, causing problems for a few
people? Was it a roll-back problem where they wound up with a new
system.mdw that couldn't be opened by an old dbEngine?

The Engine account was also used as the default account in some
MFC DAO applications (not Access Applications).


(david)
 
If Access finds an existing System.mdw file it just creates a System1.mdw. If it finds a both a System.mdw and a System1.mdw it goes on the System3.mdw.
I don't remember how I came across this but I am sure the information is correct.
As to where all the hiding places for the .mdw files, good question. Fixing Access Annoyances is the best reference I have found.
OBW, I a Access newbie and am rapidly acquiring layers of scar tissue.
 
If Access finds an existing System.mdw file it just creates a System1.mdw..  If it finds a both a System.mdw and a System1.mdw it goes on the System3.mdw.
I don't remember how I came across this but I am sure the information is correct.
As to where all the hiding places for the .mdw files, good question. Fixing Access Annoyances is the best reference I have found.
OBW, I a Access newbie and am rapidly acquiring layers of scar tissue.
Click to expand...

Having shared the burden with sarcastic know-it-all's :-)?? You
likely have access to better information than I have about the .mdw
files.

James A. Fortune
(e-mail address removed)

Any part you don't understand about a song is likely to be about sex,
drugs, hedonism in general or the creation of pretty sounding
vowels :-).
 
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