General - User level security and splitting databse

I have access database. I want to have user level security on it and split database- and have it on local network.
Do I install uls first or split?
I read if you split database - users can drag copy of front end to their desktops- does that mean they drag the front end database and shorcut created to log on?
If you already split database - and wanted user level security would you have to have it on both databases?
thank you
(access 2003)

Ordinarily you would secure only the back-end .mdb, since it is the data you usually need to protect.

I don't quite understand your question about dragging to the desktop. Possibly you are referring to a common practice where you create a desktop shortcut for the end users that calls your database with a command line parameter to use the appropriate .mdw workgroup file. This allows the users to use Access with other databases that don't require workgroup security (or possibly, use a different .mdw file). Read http://support.microsoft.com/kb/209207 under "option" look for "/wrkgrp".

sorry to not be clear- when I create a database with user level security - the mdw short cut is created ( I use the the wizard)- I am not sure how you would access a user level secure database with out this shortcut- in that case I copy a short cut from local network to each user desktop-and that is how they access database- but now if I split a database and I have a front end database and a backend database- I am unsure how this shortcut mdw works with them?
thank you

The default workgroup information file is "system.mdw", but you can have other such files, named anything you want (although that could become confusing). The 2 ways they can be used are:

• Use the Workgroup Administrator feature (under Tools - Security) to "join" a workgroup by specifying the .mdw file to use. This would be done when an organization wants ALL their Access databases to be governed by the same workgroup permissions. In this case, you don't need to use a shortcut. Every time you open Access on that workstation, it will load that .mdw file.
• Create a shortcut or simply use the Run command line to tell Access to use a particular .mdw file for the specific operation with a specific database. This is done when you want to let users work with other databases that are not governed by one common .mdw file.

You will have to decide which of these approaches meets your organization's needs. If you use the second approach (using desktop shortcuts), you shouldn't need to worry about securing the front-end.

thank you