Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Access 2010 Runtime Security Notice

This was a particularly hairy problem. There's an error message that shows up whenever you open a database with embedded code. It says "A potential security concern has been identified." Followed by a warning in bold. "It is not possible to determine that this content came from a trustworthy source."

(I blanked out the name of the file here)

Many guides I found on the Internet showed this as the registery code to insert to make that go away:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Access\Security\Trusted Locations]
"AllowNetworkLocations"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Access\Security\Trusted Locations\Location0]
"Path"="N:\\database\\"
"AllowSubfolders"=dword:00000001
"Description"=""

But they forgot one key thing. This is the only way I got this to actually work on my Windows XP test machine.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Access\Security]
"VBAWarnings"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Access\Security\Trusted Locations]
"AllowNetworkLocations"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Access\Security\Trusted Locations\Location0]
"Path"="N:\\database\\"
"AllowSubfolders"=dword:00000001
"Description"=""
Note the VBAWarnings key above? That is the deciding factor for Access 2010 Runtime to not show the warning message box on my Windows XP test machine. Your mileage may vary.
The AllowNetworkLocations key will allow it to apply this to files stored on a windows share.