MS Access Sample – Change Password

If you are using user-level security (ULS), the following is a simple demonstration of a form that can be added to any database to permit the user the ability to change their password. Useful when you create an mde or disable the standard toolbars for increased security but still want to give the user the ability to rotate their own password.

Download the sample database: User-Level Security Change of Password Form Demonstration.

Special Note & Warning
Be very careful using this sample.  If you run it on a database which does not have a designated mdw security database assigned, it will alter the system.mdw, thus affecting ALL your databases!  It is only meant to be run on secured databases using ULS security.  Any other applications can have disastrous results on your databases.  I mention this because I recently was e-mail by someone who made this mistake.  Below is the solution to fix such a mistake:

So if I understand the situation properly, you ran the chgPwd.mdb on your computer, in a db, or on its own in a db that wasn’t already secured?  I would assume that by doing so you inadvertantly applied a password against your system mdw database.  So in fact you secured the master system.mdw database, thus imposing a password against all databases running on your computer.  The fix, you’d need to either reinstall Access, or copy over a system.mdw from another clean PC over to your.