How to open locked app in design mode?

Our MS Access 2000 developer left the company a year ago. We need to open his app in design mode in order to make modifications. Double-clicking the .mdb file while holding the shift key doesn't work. When I do that the developer toolbar shows for a split second, then all toolbars go away and the app opens as users would see it. No toolbars show and only a basic dashboard is visible to run the app. I trie开发者_如何学编程d using the password recovery tool mentioned here but the tool says there is no password. Can someone tell me how I can open this app to make code modifications?

Beth's answer worked for myself and a co-worker. I've copied the solution here from the link in case the link dies.

"...To unlock the Access DB you can use the following if you know the full path to your database.

Copy the following function into a module in ANOTHER database and call the function. You will need to set the strPath to the path of your database."

Public Function ResetExternalDatabaseBypassKey _
 (Optional tfAllow As Boolean = True)

'Name:      ResetExternalDatabaseBypassKey (Function)
'Purpose:   Sets AllowByPassKey to true in another Access Database
'Author:    John Spencer UMBC-CHPDM
'Date:      May 02, 2000, 12:08:19 PM
'*******************************************
Dim dbs As Database
Dim strPath As String

On Error GoTo ResetExternalDatabaseBypassKey_ERROR

strPath = "C:/MyDatabases/SomeDataBaseName.mdb"

Set dbs = DBEngine.Workspaces(0).OpenDatabase(strPath)
dbs.Properties("AllowByPassKey") = tfAllow


ResetExternalDatabaseBypassKey_ERROR:
Select Case Err.Number
   Case 3270   'Property not found
      MsgBox "Allow Bypass Key property does not exist " & _
             "for the chosen database."
   Case Else
      MsgBox Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description
   End Select

End Function

Make sure there wasn't another copy left around without this code enabled.

This is typical code used to do this sort of thing, SetByPass There are instructions to hit Cntl-G to open VBA Editor and run code to unset this thing.

Have you tried creating a new blank database, and then importing everything?

It sounds like the shift key by-pass has been set, but that's as noted usually only needed for deployment. In fact, for any access developer, this is quite much a standard approach.

So, it not clear if anything at all been locked up here or the person just set things up as most access applications should be when deployed to users.

About the only thing you lose when importing to another application is the tools startup settings and the shift key. If there are custom menus, make sure you check the option to import those also. (However, be careful, as sometimes custom menus can be setup to run a macro on startup, and this was an old security trick). So, if importing once with tool bars and holding down shift key still causes startup code to run, then try creating another blank database and this time import everything except the menu+tools bars from the old application. Holding down shift key will thus then work for you.

Also, if the system not asking your for a password, then what would you expect a password recovery program to do? All you need is basic access developer skills here to deal with this problem and throwing things like password removal when you not being prompted for passwords will not move you forward here.

On the other hand, if after importing all the forms into a new database the design ability is grayed out, then this was in fact a mde file, and you are in a rather difficult situation unless you can find the original mdb file used to create the mde.