Database window is displayed when you click the application icon even though you turned off the "Display Database Window" startup option in Access 2002

When you turn off the Display Database Window option in the Startup dialog box, the Database window is not completely hidden if the following conditions are true:

• The database is associated with an application icon.
• The database has the Windows in Taskbar option turned on.

If you then click the application icon in the Windows taskbar, Microsoft Access refreshes and displays the Database window.

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Office XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

To work around this behavior, follow these steps:

1. Hold down the SHIFT key, and then open the database. This by-passes the current Startup options of the database.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
3. In the Options dialog box, click to clear the Windows in Taskbar check box on the View tab.
4. Click OK to close the Options dialog box.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 2 (SP-2).

Steps to Reproduce the Behavior

CAUTION: If you follow the steps in this example, you modify the sample database Northwind.mdb. You may want to back up the Northwind.mdb file and follow these steps on a copy of the database.

1. Open the sample database Northwind.mdb.
2. Close the Main Switchboard form if it opens.
3. On the Tools menu, click Startup.
4. Click to clear the Display Database Window check box.
5. Click the browse button (...) next to the Application Icon box, and then browse to a folder that has an icon (.ico) file or a cursor (.cur) file. Select an icon to be the icon for your application.
6. Set the Display Form/Page box to a startup form, and then click OK.
7. Close the Northwind database, and then reopen it.
   
   Note that there are two icons on the Windows taskbar. One represents the Main Switchboard form and the other represents the Northwind Database window. Click the Northwind Database window icon on the task bar. Note that the Database window is displayed even though you clicked to clear the Display Database Window check box.