Expert: Scottgem - 2/8/2005

Question
The following tables appeared in my database
msysaccessobjects
msysobjects
msysqueries
msysrelationships
I don't know how they got there.  When I tried to remove them I got the following message.
"you tried to lock table (whichever of these tables I was trying to delete) while opening it, but the table cannot be locked because it is currently in use.  Wait a moment, and then try the operation again.  I cannot remove them.

When I went to create a brand new database, these tables appeared at the very beginning before I had a chance to bring any table into the new database.  What are these tables and how did they get there?

Answer
These are system tables that Access creates to hold info about the database. They were ALWAYS there and are there for any new database. The reason you never saw them before is because you were hiding System Objects. For some reason the System Objects checkbox was checked off. To change it back, go to Tools>Options. Under the View tab, in the Show section just uncheck System Objects. This should be unchecked as a matter of course. The only time they should be shown is if you need to view some of the settings and that is very rare.

HTH
Scott<>