First Published 16 Mar 2024 Difficulty Level: Moderate
This article explores a relatively obscure area about which there is little or no official information
Individual user and wizard settings for Microsoft Access are stored in various places:
1. Client settings in Access Options
The preferences specified in Client Settings are stored in the registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Access\Settings
Although it is possible to edit the client settings data directly in the registry, there should normally be no reason to do so.
2. Data used by Access wizards is stored in a hidden folder: C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Access
There are normally three databases in this folder:
a) AccessCache.accdb (Access 2010 onwards)
b) ACWZUSR12.ACCDU (Access 2007 onwards) / ACWZUSRT.MDT (Access 2000-2003)
c) System.mdw (Access 97 onwards)
There may be several similarly named files System1.mdw, System2.mdw etc
NOTE:
All of these files are needed for Access to work correctly and should not be deleted.
If any of these files are removed or deleted, replacement file(s) will be automatically created when an Access database is next opened or uses a feature that depends on them.
I will now discuss each of these files in more detail
a) AccessCache.accdb (Access 2010 onwards)
This small database is used to manage the Application Parts feature introduced with Access 2010. It contains two additional system tables: Category and Template
The Category table contains the various categories listed in the Application Parts feature. The built-in Blank Forms / Quick Start items are always listed.
If the user has created additional application parts, these will be listed under User Templates or User Defined Types
For more details about this little used Access feature, see my article:Application Parts and Templates
b) ACWZUSR12.ACCDU (Access 2007 onwards) / ACWZUSRT.MDT (Access 2000-2003)
This is a much larger database which is used to manage data used by Access wizards
In my copy of Access 365, it contains over 50 local tables
Many of these tables may be empty, presumably where the wizard that depends on them has never been used.
The tables that do contain data may therefore differ depending on the user. In my case, 30 of those tables do contain data:
The information below outlines the purpose of these tables (where known):
| Table | Records | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| cw_tblChartTemplates | 1 | Stores the name of the chart object: Microsoft Graph Chart |
| doc_tblObjects | 51 | Database properties and permissions |
| doc_tblProperties | 338 | Object and control properties |
| doc_tblPropertyCategories | 5 | Property categories |
| im_TblInputMask | 200 | Details of all input masks by country / locale as used by the wizard |
| mlbl_tblLabelSizes | 2540 | Details of all labels as used by the label wizard |
| mlbl_tblMailingLabelPreferences | 2 | Labels specified previously? |
| mlbl_tblRepProperties | 39 | Properties used by the report wizard |
| tblControlStyles | 7600 | Control style info |
| tblFonts | 81 | Installed fonts? |
| tblLangFont | 205 | |
| tblLanguages | 9 | Office languages installed now or in the past |
| tblLayoutStyles | 1500 | |
| tblSectionStyles | 750 | |
| tblStyles | 50 | |
| UT_tblExportObjectList | 26 | |
| UT_tblExprFixup | 87 | Expressions and replacements |
| UT_tblFieldExtProps | 21 | External properties for fields - Old name / new name |
| UT_tblJetCompoundKeywords | 11 | Keywords used in query SQL |
| UT_tblJetKeywords | 99 | Jet reserved words |
| UT_tblJetKeywordsThatNeedFixup | 10 | Jet key words |
| UT_tblJetKeywordsWithTableNames | 4 | Keywords used in query SQL before table names |
| UT_tblKeywords | 275 | Reserved words? |
| UT_tblReportIndexes | 3 | Geographical data |
| UT_tblReportMisc | 1 | |
| UT_tblReportTables | 1 | Geodata |
| UT_tblSelectKeywords | 10 | Keywords used in SELECT query SQL |
| UT_tblTablesToExport | 1 | |
| UT_tblTblExtProps | 9 | External properties for tables - Old name / new name |
| UT_tblXLATChars | 1 | ???? |
c) System.mdw (Access 97 onwards)
The original purpose of this file was to manage workgroup information in MDB files.
Two read only system tables, MSysAccounts and MSysGroups, both containing unreadable data, manage this process
However, the System.mdw file is always opened in the background and a lock file created as soon as any Access file is opened.
This applies to any Access file type (ACCDB / ACCDE / ACCDR / MDB / MDE ) and includes Access files opened read only or exclusively.
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Colin Riddington Mendip Data Systems Last Updated 16 Mar 2024
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