Harry, see the long post from Mike Shupp about 4/11/2002, where he went into the weirdness of C:\Program Files at great length. That particular folder is just plain booby-trapped, though Mike absolved M$ of malicious intent. Archive bits set do sometimes throw XyWrite; I tried to open a file so marked recently (under Win 98 Se) and was told I "didn't have permission." I reset the archive bit and was able to open it without a problem. Go figure. Patricia