Total Access Startup
Total Access Startup is another great product from FMS, Inc., and is designed for people managing Access databases across multiple users and/or multiple versions of Access. Total Access Startup lets you centrally specify for each of your Access databases the Access version, the location of the master copy, and where it should be installed on each user's machine (see Figure 31.12). You can easily distribute a shortcut to this information, and each user is guaranteed to run the right version of Access with the most recently updated version of your database.
Figure 31.12. Total Access Startup lets you centrally specify for each of your Access databases the Access version, the location of the master copy, and where it should be installed on each user's machine.

If you are managing legacy Access databases or installing your new database on machines that are running older versions of Access, you will encounter conflicts when people run your database. Windows associates Access databases (MDB, MDE, ADP, or ADE) to one version of Access. When a user launches a database, Windows might not run the correct version of Access with it. Total Access Startup eliminates this problem. If the Access version you require doesn't exist on the user's machine, a custom message alerts them to the problem and prevents them from launching your application incorrectly.Total Access Startup also helps if you break up your Access application into a front-end and back-end database by ensuring each user always runs the latest version.By centrally specifying how your Access application is run, you can easily support new versions of Access or change your database for all your users.