How to use an .mdw file in Access 2010

Question

In Access 2010, how do you open a database (created in Access 2003) which requires an .mdw file to be used? In Access 2003 you had to reference the .mdw file first. I can't find out how you would do that in Access 2010.

Can someone tell me how to open the .mdb file in Access 2010?

Answer 1

To open an Access database that has user-level security enabled and does not use the system default Workgroup (.mdw) file you need to launch Access with command-line arguments that specify the database to be opened and the Workgroup (.mdw) file to be used. This is usually done with a Windows shortcut whose Target: is something like...

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\MSACCESS.EXE" "C:\__tmp\zzzzz.mdb" /WRKGRP "C:\__tmp\Security.mdw"

...although the same thing can be accomplished from a batch file or similar "launcher" app.