8 min read
Opening Access for the First Time
Find the Access icon, open it, and meet the Start screen — where every new database begins.
Field Notes: Finding Access on Your Computer
On Windows, Access opens the same way as any other installed program. If you don't have a Windows computer available, you can still work through this course's concepts and exercises here on the site; when you're ready to build a real database on your own machine, a Windows virtual machine, a cloud-hosted Windows session, or a borrowed Windows PC are the practical options, since there is no way to run genuine Access directly on macOS.
Goal
Open Microsoft Access for the first time.
Access always starts from the same Start screen, so this short path gets you into a database in seconds every time afterward.
Open the Start menu
Do this
Verification
Check your work
You are correct if all of these are true:
- The Start screen (also called "Backstage view") appears: a search box, a row of template thumbnails, and a list of any databases you've opened recently.
More lessons in Microsoft Access · Next: A Guided Tour of the Screen · Previous: Databases in Plain English: Key Concepts