Altova DatabaseSpy 2025 Professional Edition

Connecting to an Existing Microsoft Access Database

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This approach is suitable when you want to connect to a Microsoft Access database which is not password-protected. If the database is password-protected, set up the database password as shown in Connecting to Microsoft Access (ADO).

To connect to an existing Microsoft Access database:

1.Run the database connection wizard (see Starting the Database Connection Wizard).

2.Select Microsoft Access (ADO), and then click Next.

access_connect_existing

3.Select Use an existing MS Access database.

4.Browse for the database file, or enter the path to it (either relative or absolute).

5.Click Connect.

 

 

You can also open a Microsoft Access database directly from Windows Explorer, as follows:

 

1.Right-click an existing database file in Windows Explorer and select Open With from the context menu.

2.Choose DatabaseSpy from the list of suggestions. If this suggestion is not available, select Choose another app, and browse for the DatabaseSpy executable from the installation directory.

3.If the Database Connection Wizard appears, click Close to disregard it.

 

You can also drag and drop the database file into DatabaseSpy if the latter is already open.

 

Notes:

 

You can optionally configure DatabaseSpy from Tools | Options so as not to show the Database Connection Wizard whenever the application starts. To do this, clear the check box Show create a database connection dialog in the General group of settings.

If DatabaseSpy is open and a data source to the same database file already exists, it will be reused. In other words, a duplicate data source to the same database will not be created. This is applicable both when opening a database file with Open With and when using drag and drop.

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