Installing Access in a Networked Environment
If you're using a network operating system, such as Windows NT Server 3.x/4.0 or Novell NetWare 3.x/4.x, you can use either of the following methods to install Access in a network environment:
Install Access 97 on the network server. All workstations run the server's copy of Access 97 and don't require a copy of Access on their local disk drives. This approach saves disk space on the workstations but results in much slower operation of Access. If workstations also run Windows 95 from the server, operation can slow down even more. The degree to which the operating speed is affected depends on your network's performance and the number of users accessing the network simultaneously.
Install a copy of Windows 95 and Access 97 on each workstation. In this case, users share only Access .mdb files. Access requires between 30M and 80M of disk space, depending on the features you include in the workstation installation and whether you previously installed OLE 2+ server applications such as Microsoft Word 97 or Excel 97, or are installing Access 97 as a component of Microsoft Office 97 Professional Edition. Use this installation method for computers connected in a peer-to-peer network.
Tip
If many users must install or upgrade to Access 97, it is usually faster to use the administrator's installation on a network server and then install Access 97 on the workstations from the admin-istrator's installation, rather than from the distribution disks. (See Acread80.wri and other .wri files on the Access CD-ROM.)
You need an individual copy of the Access software for each workstation that uses Access or a license for each workstation that runs an Access application with the retail version of Access 97. For additional details, refer to the license information that Microsoft supplies with Access.
The Office Developer Edition (ODE) lets you distribute a runtime version of Access 97. Runtime Access 97 enables users to run applications you create, but not to create or modify applications. Runtime Access enables multiple workstations to run Access applications without an individual license for each workstation.
Unlike Access 1.1 and 2.0, which used a separate runtime executable file (MSARN??0. EXE), Access 97 runtime uses the retail executable (Msaccess.exe) with a setting in the user's Registry that turns off the user's ability to use Msaccess.exe in design mode. You can install runtime Access on the server or local workstations; installation of runtime Access on each workstation is recommended because you gain operating speed. A runtime Access installation consumes less disk space than the retail version of Access because runtime Access does not include (and cannot be used with) the Access help file and the Access wizards and builders.
Note
Do not attempt to share the retail or runtime version of Access on a peer-to-peer network. Peer-to-peer networks are designed for sharing printers and data files, not the executable (.exe) and help (.hlp) files of large applications such as Access. The computer and network resources required to run Access from a peer server slow applications running on the server to a crawl and greatly increase network traffic.