Determine who opened a Microsoft Office Access 2003 database in the exclusive mode (824274)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Office Access 2003
This article applies only to a Microsoft Access database (.mdb).

Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.
For a Microsoft Access 2002 version of this article, see 289580.

For a Microsoft Access 2000 version of this article, see 289580.

SUMMARY

In a Microsoft Office Access 2003 environment, you may not be able to determine who opened an Access 2003 database in the exclusive mode. However, you can use the operating system utilities to determine who is using shared resources on your computer.

MORE INFORMATION

When you open an Access 2003 database, Access 2003 typically creates a lock file with the same name as the database file. This lock file has an .ldb extension. The .ldb file contains the information about who opened the Access 2003 database and about the computer that was used to open the Access 2003 database. However, when a user opens an Access 2003 database in the exclusive mode, Access 2003 does not create a lock file with an .ldb extension. Therefore, Access 2003 cannot use the .ldb file to determine who opened the database in the exclusive mode. If you try to open an Access 2003 database and another user has already opened the database in the exclusive mode, you receive the following error message:
Could not use '<path>\<database.mdb>'; file already in use.
You do not receive any information about who opened the Microsoft Office Access 2003 database in the exclusive mode or about the computer that was used to open the Microsoft Office Access 2003 database in the exclusive mode.

You can use utility software, such as the Computer Management utility or the Server Manager utility, to determine who has an Access 2003 database open in the exclusive mode and to determine what computer has an Access 2003 database open in the exclusive mode.

For more information about how to view shared resources by using the Computer Management utility, follow these steps.

Note Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.
  1. Click Start.
  2. Click Help and Support.
  3. In the Search box, type Computer Management.
  4. Click Start Searching to view the topics.
  5. Search the Computer Management utility Help Index for "Viewing Information About Shared Resources."
If your computer runs the Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system, the Server Manager utility may be available as an executable file (Srvmgr.exe) in the Installation Drive:\WINNT\SYSTEM32 folder on your computer. If the Server Manager utility is not available, install the Server Manager utility and then monitor the concurrent users of the computer resources.

REFERENCES

For additional information about using the Server Manager utility to monitor the concurrent users of the computer resources, see the "Viewing: User Sessions" topic in the Server Manager Help Index.

For additional information about installing the Server Manager utility, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

237995 Installing Usrmgr.exe and Srvmgr.exe in Windows 2000 Professional

173673 Windows NT Server Tools for Windows NT Workstation 4.0 available



For additional information about .ldb files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

299373 Introduction to .ldb files

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:1/17/2005
Keywords:kbopenfile kbinfo kbUser kberrmsg KB824274 kbAudDeveloper
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