Thanks for ur reply. But remenber I have a 'secured database'

I tried:
Private Sub Cmd_refresh_Click()
Shell ("C:\Program Files\Office97\Office\MSACCESS.EXE /excl /
NOSTARTUP /wrkgrp path_to_security.MDW path_to_database.mdb")
chan = DDEInitiate("MSACCESS", "system")
application.DDETerminate chan

And it looks like the Shell does not recognized with the .mdw option
on it. Any ideas how I can add the security file to the shell?