Bittersweet Victory is Mine: Working with Microsoft Access on a Mac

Have you ever heard your mac make the windows start-up sound? I found it oddly unsettling, even though it was the solution to my challenge.

The quest that lay before me this morning: Help a mac user get their paws on the MS Access database that underlies one of their dynamic web sites.

Solution:

  1. Install Remote Desktop Client (RDC) 1.0.3 for Mac OS X version 10.2.8 or later
  2. Set permissions for their user account on the central Windows Enterprise Server to allow access via “windows terminal services
  3. Configure Remote Desktop Connection to make a connection to my central Windows Enterprise Server

Why post this solution? Because all my google searches informed me that what I just did was NOT possible. Even my help desk told me it couldn’t be done. So, for all of you out there trying to open a .mdb file on a mac, there is hope! Hope, thy name is “Remote Desktop Connection”!

I could just hug someone on our system staff right now for enabling and documenting windows terminal services! But I still can’t shake the queasy feeling in my tummy from hearing my Mac make such PC type noises!