[AccessD] FW: Preparing Access Applications for Office 2003 Conversion

Hi Polly

Look up in the archive of April:

  Access 2003 Digital Certificate

/gustav


> If any of you have experience/advice on this issue we would appreciate
> your input.  Thanks in advance!
> -Polly P.
> ________________________________________________________________________
> ___________________


> PROBLEM:
> Converting from Office XP to Office 2003 raises security warning
> messages in Access .ADP applications that are delivered to users via a
> standard image. 


> CONVERSION SECURITY ISSUE:
> When testing our .adp applications in an Office 2003 test environment,
> we find the following results:

> *       When macro security is set to high applications basically do not
> function.
> *       When macro security is set to medium, a security warning appears
> at startup: 

> "This file may not be safe if it contains code that was intended to harm
> your computer.  Do you want to open the file or cancel the operation?"  

> If you select 'open' then the application appears to function normally

> *       When macro security is set to low: Everything appears to
> function normally.


> OUR PROPOSED SOLUTION:
> Microsoft recommends setting Macro Security to medium or high in Access
> applications.  After reading several articles, I'm leaning toward the
> following solution:
> Set Access macro security to medium and disable the security warning.
>>From what I've read, it's possible for an administrator to do this via
> Certificate Server on Windows 2000/2003 Server.  The administrator could
> create a digital signature that would be valid across the domain.   This
> digital signature certificate would essentially turn off the error
> message you see if macro security settings are at medium.


> QUESTIONS
> 1.      How can we best adopt Microsoft's security recommendations and
> avoid this error message?
> 2.    Does our solution seem sensible?  Has anyone actually done this
> before?  Are their details I'm overlooking?  How have others dealt with
> this conversion?
> 3.    Where can we see what security level we are currently using in
> Access 2002?  The Tools, Macro, Security path isn't an option in 2002
> and I can't find much on Macro security in that environment.



> SPECS:
> We're currently running Office XP, Access 2002, MS Jet 4.0 sp 8
> (4.0.8618.0), Security Level: ?

> We're Migrating to Office 2003, Access 2003, MS Jet 4.0 sp 8
> (4.0.8618.0), Security Level Medium