The first time you open Access 2010, you are presented with the Privacy Options dialog box shown in Figure 2-1. This dialog box lists three radio buttons, which are not selected by default. Note that you must have an active connection to the Internet to use the first two options. The Use Recommended Settings radio button, when selected, turns on several features of your Microsoft Office 2010 installation. Your computer will periodically check Microsoft’s website for any product and security updates to your Office, Windows, or other Microsoft software. If any updates are detected, your computer will install these updates automatically for you. Selecting this radio button also allows Access to search Office.com’s vast resources for content relevant to your search. Access downloads this information to your local computer for faster searching when you search for items in the Help section. Selecting this option means you will have the latest Help information at your disposal. When you choose Use Recommend Settings, Office downloads a special diagnostic tool that interfaces with the Office 2010 system. You can use this tool to help identify problems with your Office installation. Although not required to run the Office 2010 release or Access 2010, this tool might assist you with locating the cause of any unforeseen system crashes. Selecting Use Recommend Settings also allows you to sign up for Microsoft’s Customer Experience Improvement Program. This utility tracks various statistics while you use Access 2010 and the Office 2010 release and sends that information to Microsoft. By tracking how customers are using their products, Microsoft can improve its Office line of products for future releases. Note that this option does not send any personal information to Microsoft. Click the Read Our Privacy Statement link in the lower-left corner to read Microsoft’s privacy statement.
The second radio button in the Privacy Options dialog box, Install Updates Only, performs a subset of the features for Use Recommend Settings. When you select this option, your computer will check Microsoft’s website only periodically for any product and security updates to your Office, Windows, or other Microsoft software and install them. The last radio button, Don’t Make Changes, makes no changes to your Office 2010 installation. Selecting this option could leave your computer at risk, however, because your computer will not download and install product or security updates. After you make your selection in the Privacy dialog box, click OK to start using Access 2010.
Note
The dialog box shown in Figure 2-1 is what we saw when opening Access for the first time using Windows 7. You might see a slightly different sequence of prompts if you install Office on Windows Vista.
After selecting your options in the Privacy Options dialog box, you can always alter these settings later. For more information on changing these settings, see Modifying Global Settings via the Access Options Dialog Box.