Auto FE Updater - Frequently Asked Questions

Short answer: delete startmdb.exe as it is now a 1K or 2K shortcut file. Import startmdb.exe from the downloaded zip file. Right click on the exe, properties and in the attributes section check it as read only.

Long answer. Very occasionally a user will encounter a strange message which comes from their Windows OS and tey choose what appears to be the sane option. Windows then replaces the exe on the server share with a shortcut pointing to itself. You can verify this by renaming startmdb.exe to startmdb.lnk and you will see it's properties as a shortcut.

You are now seeing the same screen the users would see if they clicked on the exe file directly. Your work station name and network user id are stored in the AutoFEUpdater.ini configuration settings file. This file can be found in the same folder as the startmdb.exe and contains Master1, 2, and 3 entries. Only workstations and user ids present in those entries are allowed access to all the options.
1) The best solution is to open the AutoFEUpdater.ini configuration settings file with Notepad and replace the workstation name with your current workstation name. This will preserve other settings in the file such as your license key number.
2) The quickest solution is to delete the AutoFEUpdater.ini file and click on the StartMDB.exe so it will recreate the file with your current workstation name in it. However you will lose a number of other settings in that file.

The Auto FE Updater utility works just fine under Windows 10.

Have you tried downloading the Windows Compressed Folder file on the download page?

You can now use the uncompress files option for this. A better solution will be coming but it will be a while yet.

See the uncompress files page.

The utility is now checking the target folder to see if an LDB/LACCDB file is present. The problem is that bizarre things can happen if a user is already in the FE database file and if the Auto FE Updater utility needs to copy down the new FE database file over top the old one. However some folks are telling me that this is a problem. I've added a check box on the Seldom Used Update form which states "Ignore the 1184 - Already Running App message"

Go to the File, Tools & Help menu and choose Tools. Then select Request Trail Period Extension.

Lockout only sets a flag in the config file. It does not do anything to the Access files. So yes you can set it and the users already in have an unlimited amount of time to finish. Any users that try to go into the app will, of course, be unable to do so.

Note that the Enterprise Edition has a Lockout - Create Email to Users feature which allows you to send an email to those users currently in the BE. Once you go to unlock the database you can send an email to those who were in the database as well as those who attempted to use the app while it was locked out.

You are possibly testing the Auto FE Updater and have two different versions on your server with two different AutoFEUpdater Log.MDB files. When you are running the newer version the utility is pulling in all the workstation ids from the Access or SQL Server database file but the Auto FE Updater Log.MDB only has your userid in it. You can see this yourself by opening the AutoFEUpdater MDB file in Access and open the SystemUsers table. The solution is to open the Enterprise Edition form and change the Auto FE Updater Log.MDB file to point to the active AutoFEUpdater Log.MDB file with all the users in it.

The DBA or IT administrators must give you explicit permissions to view this data by issuing the following SQL Server command. GRANT VIEW SERVER STATE TO

The Access LDB/LACCDB only records the workstation name. The only way to determine the name of the user is to query the log database file for the last user of that workstation. This, of course, doesn't work for Terminal Server users. You need to implement the AutoFEUpdater_ExitApp code as found in the Auto FE Updater Sample Code Vx.xx.mdb in the distribution zip file.

See the Terminal Server/Citrix implementation page. If you have any questions please email me.

No, this is a one time action for each user and is only required for users who are new to your application or through some problem have had the shortcuts removed from their system. Once they've clicked on the shortcut in the email the first time the utility will create a desktop, quick launch or programs shortcut. From now on they only click on the shortcut(s) you've configured the Auto FE Updater to create.

You're looking at the raw HTML code so you need to insert the html paragraph code </p>.

Ensure your command line parameters have spaces in between the arguments. For example:
CommandLine= /runtime/wrkgrp "\\Server\Shared...." is a problem.

A: In the Auto FE Updater program Update the configuration file and select Trusted Locations screen. Then click the check box appropriate to your version of Access.

This was fixed in version 2.13 as you can now specify the Add Server to local Intranet Zone

These files should reside in a directory on the server, likely called Auto FE Updater. They should be be in the same directory as the Auto FE Updater utility but that's not a requirement. While you can have other files in the Auto FE Updater folder I wouldn't recommend it.

The FE Access database file()s (MDB, MDE, ACCDB, ACCDE, ACCDR, ADP or ADE) must reside in it's own folder on the server. Along with any other files you want to copy down to the client in the same folder such as add-in MDEs or the Leban's PDF DLLs.

You require a directory on the server which is exclusively for the use of the Access front end (FE) database file which is to be copied to the client directory whenever it's updated. As well as any other files required such as MDE add-ins or DLL files. All files in this directory will be copied to the client workstation. This is the MDB/MDE/ACCDB/etc which you update on your own system and then copy up to the server when you complete a feature or bug fix.

The shortcut (which has a .LNK extension although you never see that), Auto FE Updater configuration files and startmdb.exe as well as the backend can be placed in any other directory you desire. This directory can contain any other files you want. However I'd suggest you dedicate a directory to the Auto FE Updater and it's associated files.

Yes, the Auto FE Updater can be used with any files. ADPs, ADEs, Word or Excel files, VB or C++ .exes, etc. All that matters is if a file(s) is placed in the FE directory on the server with a different date, or a new file, then it gets copied down automatically the next time the user runs the shortcut.

One person uses the utility to distribute an Excel Add-In to a few other users in his company. But as he seldom does any updates to it he chose to not create any shortcuts. He also uses the Create User Setup Email to let the other users know when there is an update

I get the user name using an API call. I chose to use variable names surrounded by %s in the INI that were the same as the command prompt variables just for some consistency.

1) Can you create shortcuts on your or the users desktop manually by right clicking? Some IT departments restrict this capability.
2) You can now create shortcuts in the users My Documents folder. Not the best option but if the IT department has restricted this what choice do you have?

You need to specify the location of the workgroup file in the Command Line entry just as you would when creating a shortcut.

For example /wrkgrp \\server\share\workgroup.mdw

If you are using the Start Method=Autoselect you will also want to use the MDWFile option as well so the Auto FE Updater knows which version of Access to use to open the client FE MDB/MDE. You can avoid this by using a different Start Method other than Low Macro Security.

See the Workgroup File Settings page and fill in the appropriate information.

Yes, although you can only start a .bat, .cmd or exe file. You can't then start an MDB/MDE running using the Auto FE Updater. The bat, cmd or exe file will then have to start the MDB/MDE/etc You can use the Executable Start Method option.

The only time the Auto FE Updater should be giving you the 1019 error is if you are using the Start Method of Auto Select which I don't suggest anyone uses unless they have a very good reason. Try using the File Extension option instead.

If you do want to use ULS and Start Method of Auto Select you will also need to set the parameters at the Workgroup File settings page.

Microsoft Access cannot open this file ACCDR

Go to the Command Line screen and add /runtime to the Command Line. In a future version I will do that automatically if an ACCDR file is found.

Recent updates to the logic should have fixed this unless you are using the Start Method=Low Macro Security. For Low Macro Security only due to how Windows works I have no way of passing a command line to Access.

You've specified both the Desktop Shortcut and the Common Desktop Shortcut. Remove the Common Desktop Shortcut option as it no longer works in Windows Vista and newer. Microsoft have restricted updates to the common folders to be by administrators only.

The FE should be installed in the users Application Data directory on the workstation. In the Target screen use the %appdata% environment variable.

Create a configuration file with the appropriate settings for each of the servers along with StartMDB.exe. Once you've determined the local server then call StartMDB.exe using command line parameters such as "\\server1\share1\StartMDB\StartMDB.exe" /cmd /inifile"\\server1\share1\Auto FE Updater\.ini"

1) The only work station names in the AutoFEUpdater.INI file should be those of the developers as these entries give those workstation users the AutoFEUpdater GUI to work with the INI files
2) You can't do it on the individual lines Master1-3 as INI files don't work that way without extra logic on my part. However you can add additional lines in the INI file as you wish. These will be ignored by the Auto FE Updat

There are two parts to this. One is to replace the FE MDE so it's linked to the new server folder and folder structure and the other to change the target of the shortcut to use the new Auto FE Updater INI file.

On the day of the switchover delete/rename the BE MDB file from the old server so just in case something gets missed they can't work with the old MDB file. You're moving it to a new server anyhow so don't leave it easily available on the old server.

Copy the new FE MDE which is linked to the new BE server and folder to the FE path on the old server. This way when the users run the old shortcut for the first time they will get switched over to the new FE MDE.

Update the AutoFEUpdater INI file on the old server to be the same as the INI file on the new server. When the users run the new INI for the first time they will get a warning message saying the shortcut on their system is different. Use the Shortcut Error Message Handling option set to "Correct problem with no message to user" on the configuration file on the old server to ignore that message so the shortcut gets updated transparently to the user.

Use the New INI Path And File entry in the old INI file. This line is only used when moving servers or such as this will rewrite the path and name of the StartMDB exe and INI file in the target of the shortcut.

This can all be tested ahead of time.

That's caused by the runtime switch present in the Command Line entry in the sample INI files published with versions prior to 2.0. Remove that line from the INI file. If you are distributing a runtime you must create your own menu bar. Distributing the file in this fashion is slightly more secure thus I've chosen this as being the default in the past.