Access Forensics Portable

If you're looking for an all-round piece of software capable of opening Microsoft Access databases without Access, scanning and recovering deleted data, decrypting passwords as well as saving info to file, you can try Access Forensics Portable.

Designed as the portable edition of Access Forensics, this tool comes wrapped in a clean and intuitive interface, offering practical features to help you manage Access databases. Since installation isn't required, you can double-click the .exe from the downloaded package to reach the main window right away.

After opening a Microsoft Access file, you can check out all containing objects, including the name, ID, owner and properties of all tables (e.g. column order, display control, Unicode compression). Database properties can be copied to the clipboard or saved to file in XML or CSV format.

Even password-protected databases can be opened if you know the right key. Otherwise, you can turn to the dictionary, brute force or mixed attack method to try and find out the password if you have misplaced or forgotten it.

The dictionary mode means to try all words from an existing text document. Brute force, on the other hand, implies trying combinations of random characters. The mixed mode means using a dictionary file and making modifications to the rules. For example, you can make all letters upper or lower case. With the help of Access Forensics Portable, you can also encrypt unprotected databases.

Databases were decrypted in a reasonable amount of time during our tests while the software program remained light on system resources usage. Taking everything into account, Access Forensics offers a convenient solution for users looking for a way to open, decrypt and extract information from MS Access databases with minimal effort.