Microsoft Access Command Line Switches

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Applies to Access 97, 2000, 2002, 2003

(That can be applied to the Workbench)

The following table lists the Microsoft Access command-line options that can be used in The Access Workbench.

These can be used when you select the Show Open with command line check box in the Workbench Options form.

A text box will now appear in the main menu (as shown in Figure 1). Here you can type any of the following commands. The commands will be used when the Open button is next clicked.

Option	Effect
/decompile	Undocumented command line. Will remove old code (if it exists) and objects from the database and make the database smaller and sometimes faster. Use sparingly Read More Online
/excl	Opens the specified Access database for exclusive access. To open the database for shared access in a multi-user environment, omit this option. Applies to Access databases only.
/ro	Opens the specified Access database or Access project for read-only access.
/user user name	Starts Access by using the specified user name. Applies to Access databases only.
/pwd password	Starts Access by using the specified password. Applies to Access databases only.
/profile user profile	Starts Access by using the options in the specified user profile instead of the standard Windows Registry settings created when you installed Microsoft Access. This replaces the /ini option used in versions of Microsoft Access prior to Access 97 to specify an initialization file.
/compact target database or target Access project	Compacts and repairs the Access database, or compacts the Access project that was specified before the /compact option, and then closes Access. If you omit a target file name following the /compact option, the file is compacted to the original name and folder. To compact to a different name, specify a target file. If you don't include a path in target database or target Access project, the target file is created in your My Documents folder by default. In an Access project, this option compacts the Access project (.adp) file but not the Microsoft SQL Server database.
/repair	Repairs the Access database that was specified before the /repair option, and then closes Microsoft Access. In Microsoft Access 2000 or later, compact and repair functionality is combined under /compact. The /repair option is supported for backward compatibility.
/convert target database	Converts a previous-version Access database or Access project to the default file format, renames the new file, and then closes Access. You must specify the source database before you use the /convert option. To view the default file format, click Options on the Tools menu, and then click the Advanced tab.
/x macro	Starts Access and runs the specified macro. Another way to run a macro when you open a database is to use an AutoExec macro.
/cmd	Specifies that what follows on the command line is the value that will be returned by the Command function. This option must be the last option on the command line. You can use a semicolon (;) as an alternative to /cmd. Use this option to specify a command-line argument that can be used in Visual Basic code.
/nostartup	Starts Access without displaying the task pane (the second dialog box that you see when you start Access).
/wrkgrp workgroup information file	Starts Access by using the specified workgroup information file. Applies to Access databases only.

Notes

To run a Visual Basic for Applications procedure when you open a database, use the RunCode action in the AutoExec macro or in the macro that you run by using the command-line option /x. You can also run a Visual Basic procedure when you open a database by creating a form with a Visual Basic procedure defined for its OnOpen event. Designate this form as the startup form by right-clicking the Database window, clicking Startup, and then entering that form in the Display Form/Page box.

To specify a forward slash (/) or semicolon (;) on the command line, type the character twice. For example, to specify the password ;mjs/md on the command line, type ;;mjs//md following the /pwd command-line option.