Good question – in many cases we don’t. However we do see situation where we had data displayed on a form that we want some users to see and other to not see. In that case we use a GroupID to determine whether or not a particular form is visible or not.

If the front end is not secured, it is simple to reset the database’s Shift Bypass property. Example:

Public Sub SetShiftBypassDB(ByRef strDbName As String, ByVal bAllowBypass As Boolean)
On Error GoTo Err_Handler

‘ strDbName = full path to other db
‘ bAllowBypass = True: enables Shift Bypass Key
‘ bAllowBypass = False: disables Shift Bypass Key

Dim ws As DAO.Workspace
Dim db As DAO.Database
Dim prop As DAO.Property
Dim strPropName As String
Dim strMsg As String

Set ws = DBEngine.Workspaces(0)
Set db = ws.OpenDatabase(strDbName)
strPropName = “AllowBypassKey”
db.Properties(strPropName) = bAllowBypass

strMsg = “Allow Shift Bypass property for ” & strDbName & ” set to: ” & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
db.Properties(strPropName)
MsgBox strMsg, vbInformation, “SHIFT BYPASS PROPERTY”

Exit_Sub:
If Not db Is Nothing Then db.Close
Set ws = Nothing
Set db = Nothing
Set prop = Nothing
Exit Sub
Err_Handler:
Select Case Err.Number
Case 3270 ‘ Property not found – create and append
Set prop = db.CreateProperty(strPropName, dbBoolean, bAllowBypass, True)
db.Properties.Append prop
Resume
Case 3033 ‘ Permission denied
strMsg = “Permission to access the database was denied. ” & _
“Shift Bypass property not reset.”
MsgBox strMsg, vbExclamation, “PERMISSION DENIED”
Resume Exit_Sub
Case Else
strMsg = “Error No ” & Err.Number & “: ” & Err.Description
Beep
MsgBox strMsg, vbExclamation, “SET SHIFT BYPASS DB ERROR”
Resume Exit_Sub
End Select

End Sub

Example use:

SetShiftBypassDB “C:AccessNW_S.mde”, True

If you create two .MDE’s based on same FE, one secured, one unsecured, the code above will successfully enable/disable the Shift Bypass key for unsecured .MDE. However, attempt to run same sub for secured .MDE will result in error msg like the one illustrated. This was true even if logged in as member of secured .MDE’s workgroup file (but not as member of Admins group). It’s often noted that when setting Allow Bypass property in code, do not forget to set 4th argument (DDL) for CreateProperty method to True (as shown above) so that only Administrators can change property. In testing this, even if DDL was not specified (default is False), a secured db’s non-Admins user was not able to change property setting unless explicitly granted dbSecWriteDef permission.

In addition, as noted by Wendell B., I find it necessary to secure the FE because often forms or controls are enabled/disabled, visible/not visible, etc based on which group account the CurrentUser belongs to. Some forms have “Admin” functions only available for Administrators. So I prefer to secure both FE & BE.