cannot open the microsoft jet engine workgroup

Question

Several of my customers have called this morning with the above error message when running applications using MS Access as the back end. This is on windows xp and 7.  All of the PC's having the problem received "Critical Updates" last night or this morning. A System.MDW file keeps being created with 0 bytes. What happened last night and how can I fix it.  I have 20+ clients so far with this problem, and I am sure more will come as others come into work.

Answer 1

I just found a thread that gives a solution.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/169c6873-a610-4e65-ac08-8b7de86659b7/cannot-open-the-microsoft-office-access-database-engine-workgroup-information-file?forum=accessdev

It looks like it is a problem with a virus scanner.

Answer 2

• Disable Kaspersky active scan.
• Find System.mdb (often in the application directory, but may be in other locations). It will be 0 bytes and have today's date, or date of first error
• Delete the System.mdb file (some cases .mdw)

Contact Kaspersky and complain. I think they know by now from their forums replies.

Once Kaspersky releases a new update you can attempt again

Answer 3

It worked, thanks so much!

Answer 4

Thanks, I will check it out.  Seems like the forum is really starting to hit this issue a lot now.