Problem with Access 2000 in Windows XP

[Travel Agent]

I am having a problem starting Access 2000 in my Windows XP Pro OS. When I
try to start Access I get the following message: can't find the database you
specified or you didn't specify a database at all. Specify a valid database
name in the command line and include a path if necessary. When I click OK
Access closes.

This worked prior to our OS upgrade from 98 to XP pro and this version of
Access is part of our Office 2000 for Small Business and this is the only
application in this package that won't work. Any help would be greatly
appreciated.

 

[Jerry Whittle]

I don't believe that Office 2000 for Small Business had Access. Possibly
someone installed a run time version of Access on your computers.

I'm assuming that you are starting Access from a shortcut either on the
desktop or somewhere under the Start Button. Find that icon and right click
on it. Go down to Properties. Click on the various tabs. Hopefully one says
"Shortcut". If so click on it and see what the target is. See if you can find
the target Access program and database file on your computer or network. Also
go to Start, Programs and see the Properties for the Access program. You
might want to copy and paste them here so that we can look at them.

By upgrade do you mean that they installed XP on computers that had Win98
before or got new computers with XP? Hopefully the latter. Either way it's
possible that things aren't set up properly.

 

[Travel Agent]

I don't believe that Office 2000 for Small Business had Access. Possibly
someone installed a run time version of Access on your computers.

I'm assuming that you are starting Access from a shortcut either on the
desktop or somewhere under the Start Button. Find that icon and right click
on it. Go down to Properties. Click on the various tabs. Hopefully one says
"Shortcut". If so click on it and see what the target is. See if you can find
the target Access program and database file on your computer or network. Also
go to Start, Programs and see the Properties for the Access program. You
might want to copy and paste them here so that we can look at them.

By upgrade do you mean that they installed XP on computers that had Win98
before or got new computers with XP? Hopefully the latter. Either way it's
possible that things aren't set up properly.

Jerry,

Thanks for the reply but yes The version of Office 2000 does contain access
and it is a full useable version and I even checked this out through the
system requirements for office 2000.

Now I have all our Office programs on our D drive and eveything else works
just fine except for Access. As for how I access the application, I go
directly to D:\Office\MCACCESS.EXE and click on that and that is when I get
the message.

The upgrade I was referring to was when we had to upgrade our OS from 98 to
XP and now Access is the only aplication not working. The funny thing is
Access does not show up under our Start--->Programs.

 

[Jerry Whittle]

Here's a similar problem but with Access 97 on Win 2000.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/235279

My guess would be that you need to uninstall then reinstall Office.

 

[Travel Agent]

Here's a similar problem but with Access 97 on Win 2000.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/235279

My guess would be that you need to uninstall then reinstall Office.

Jerry,

That is the first thing I did.

 

[Jerry Whittle]

Dang! I'm out of good ideas. To be honest though I would have never
recommended upgrading Win98 computers to XP. Too many weird things going
wrong, maybe like yours, and too much time and effort to do the work. Buying
new computers is often cheaper in the long run.

 

[Travel Agent]

Dang! I'm out of good ideas. To be honest though I would have never
recommended upgrading Win98 computers to XP. Too many weird things going
wrong, maybe like yours, and too much time and effort to do the work. Buying
new computers is often cheaper in the long run.

Thank Jerry,

I think you just convinced me to scrap Micosoft Access and switch to Open
Office Base.

 

[Travel Agent]

Dang! I'm out of good ideas. To be honest though I would have never
recommended upgrading Win98 computers to XP. Too many weird things going
wrong, maybe like yours, and too much time and effort to do the work. Buying
new computers is often cheaper in the long run.

Thank for everything Jerry but I think you just convinced me to scrap
Micosoft Access and switch to Open Office Base.

 

[Chris Mills]

Perhaps, but the danger is you may well find a whole lot of *different* probs
if you do that. MS Access has a bunch of problems larger than a bunch of
bananas for sure, but this doesn't sound to me like one of them.

Not that I can necessarily solve your problem. My last release was A2000, and
by now most of 500+ customers would be running A2000 on WinXP by now.

I also handed the business over <chuckle>

Jerry had something to say about "upgrading Windows". Most customers probably
upgrade by buying new machines.

Small Business Edition did NOT have Access. It had "Access Runtime" for the
purposes of running some of the Office SBS application programs. This did NOT
license you to distribute Access Runtime or otherwise use it, if you're a
developer you need Developer Edition.

It is very likely that you "just" have a screwed up installation, and I
wouldn't want to guess what it is beyond Jerry's laudable efforts. Sometimes,
"Complete Remove and Install" is better than "Reinstall". What the technical
differences are, I doubt even Microsoft knows. Both Office and Windows!

A-2K has been A-OK on Win-XP for a long time. Mostly, that is? (I mean, it
does actually run)
Chris
-----

can't find the database you
specified or you didn't specify a database at all. Specify a valid database
name in the command line and include a path if necessary.

You're expected to be capable of generating and/or analysing a shortcut.
"I go directly to D:\Office\MCACCESS.EXE and click on that" could not cause
the app not to be found since you didn't specify an app by that method! In any
case, you would always launch an app via suitable shortcut, so such a test is
in some ways irrelevant.

Not unless the Access installation was just screwed, that is. Using D: drive
(other than C: drive) might perhaps be unusual.

A full app shortcut command-line would look like this:
(um, I can post one but surely you know? Are you saying you just try to click
on msaccess.exe with no app specified and get that message? Maybe you just
have a really, really screwed-up computer? If so, maybe Open Office Base might
have the same problem?)
(I'm just thinking about it, alright?)