What I am asking may not be possible, but here goes.

The Scenerio is this: I have a client/server type application where centralized databases (Access 2000 and Access 97) live on a Win NT file server. Between 6 and 15 different PCs run different parts of the application. Some are fully automated, you turn them on and they run until shut down with no intervention. Others are operator driven, they need a human being to key in data or scan in documents. These parts are all vendor applications (two vendors) so I don't have much control over them. They also do not provide automated tools to maintain all of the Access databases, which need to be purged and compacted at least once a day because of the high volume we have. I have written a program that will automatically move all of the data that we need to keep into a common database (Access now, soon to be SQL Server) that I control and delete all of the old records from the vendor databases. I then run a compact routine using JetCOMP to compact/repair the databases.

Here is the catch --- If any workstation still has the application running, I can't run JETCOMP on that database.

Is there a way to detect which workstation has the database open, which of the EXEs it is that is running on that workstation, determine if it is idle or active and then shut down the EXE if it is inactive?

Ok VB Guru's show your stuff.

Thanks,