• Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.6 Library
• Microsoft ADO Ext. 2.6 for DLL and Security

(Or whatever your versions are.)

When you click the Search Tables button, the following code executes. It opens the database and uses the ADOX catalog to learn about the database. It loops through the Tables collection and looks for objects that have the TABLE type. (You could remove this test to make the code search queries and system tables in addition to normal tables.) The code searches TABLE type objects for the target string. If it finds the string, it lists the table's name and its columns in a ListView control.

Private Sub cmdSearchTables_Click()
Dim conn As ADODB.Connection
Dim cat As ADOX.Catalog
Dim i As Integer
Dim target As String
Dim cols As String
Dim col As ADOX.Column
Dim list_item As ListItem

    MousePointer = vbHourglass
    lvwTables.ListItems.Clear
    DoEvents

    ' Open the connection.
    Set conn = New ADODB.Connection
    conn.ConnectionString = _
        "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" & _
        "Persist Security Info=False;" & _
        "Data Source=" & txtDatabase.Text
    conn.Open

    ' Make a catalog for the database.
    Set cat = New ADOX.Catalog
    Set cat.ActiveConnection = conn

    ' Search the catalog's tables.
    target = LCase$(txtSearchFor.Text)
    For i = 0 To cat.Tables.Count - 1
        If cat.Tables(i).Type = "TABLE" Then
            cols = ""
            For Each col In cat.Tables(i).Columns
                cols = cols & ", " & col.Name
            Next col

            If InStr(LCase$(cols), target) > 0 Then
                Set list_item = _
                    lvwTables.ListItems.Add(Text:=cat.Tables(i).Name)
                cols = Mid$(cols, 3)
                list_item.SubItems(1) = cols
            End If
        End If
    Next i
        
    conn.Close

    MousePointer = vbDefault

    If lvwTables.ListItems.Count = 0 Then MsgBox "Done"
End Sub