Switch off access to an office application

[Mark C]

Hi,
Not sure if this is possible but is there a way of restricting a user from
using an application in the office suite. Basically our ghost image includes
a full installation of office 2003 and we are playing with the idea of taking
access 2003 off of them until they have completed sufficient training (due to
the abundance of huge / unused mdb files now found on the system). We don't
want to re-image all of the computers with an office minus access
installation and don't want to create lots of group policy to uninstall /
reinstall the app. Is there a simple reg setting which I can use to stop
users accessing access?

Thanks
Mark

 

[Gyorgy Moldova [MCSE+I, MVP]]

a bit lame solution might be to delete the msaccess.exe file. There is no
exact registry entry AFAIK to disable access to a particular app.

hth
g

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Mark,

To add to Gyorgy's reply. You could create
different MSTs to limit the feature set but
you'd have different ghost images at that point
or you could run CMWs to hide the feature but the
recache reinstall would be needed. Unfortunately
MSAccess.exe is also the name of a runtime version
used by some apps.

You may be able to use policies to disable access
to the application but another approach might be
to use a script to locate the database files on
the servers and generate email to the owners asking
them to confirm the need for them by return email or
the database will be archived then deleted xx days
after the email.

If the databases are large ones it may be that they're
related to a specific projects people were on that may
be dormant or they may be needed, but not on a daily basis.

If you move the MSAccess.exe file the MS Installer would
likely try to put it back as a repair, but you may be able
to hide access to the folder that holds the exe and direct
the shortcut to a nul file.

==========
Hi,
Not sure if this is possible but is there a way of restricting a user from
using an application in the office suite. Basically our ghost image includes
a full installation of office 2003 and we are playing with the idea of taking
access 2003 off of them until they have completed sufficient training (due to
the abundance of huge / unused mdb files now found on the system). We don't
want to re-image all of the computers with an office minus access
installation and don't want to create lots of group policy to uninstall /
reinstall the app. Is there a simple reg setting which I can use to stop
users accessing access?

Thanks
Mark >>
--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

Office 2003 Editions explained
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/office/editions.mspx