I read in one of FM books that FM can be setup to prevent the creation of a new db by the user. I went through FM Options, Preferences, etc.. and could not find an option to disable “New Database…” under File in the menu.

Thanks for any suggestion on how to configure FM to only open files and run DBs and prevent users from creating new databases.

... I'm pretty sure you can't do this with FM directly, though there may or may not be a way to limit it when your particular file is open.

Filemaker does indeed provide the ability to prevent the creation of new databases. It is a choice that is made when installing FM on the local workstation. I don't have the details in front of me on the weekend but I have a site license of FMP and there is a configuration file that can be modified that will do a "silent install" of FMP on workstations. This silent install routine pre-answers the typical questions that must be answered when installing software such as license key. One of the other parameters that can be set is revoking the ability to create new databases. There *may* be other methods too but I am aware of this way.

Unfortunately the program is already installed, unless I uninstall and reinstall? I am not absolutely sure (I installed it several months ago) but I don't remember such options. Is it probably a custom installation?

I *think* this ability is limited to volume license installations. The process is described in Answer 544 at the FMP KB:

http://filemaker.custhelp.com/