thanks for this Yousfi. I will experiment with your solutions today and see how far I get. I definitely wanted to get away from the set defa to - I have gotten into a great many problems using that - when the programming starts to look for VFP commands in the wrong directory.

k
>locfile() is a good solution.this is some suggestions around.
>
>0.getfile() dont open files in home() as you said directory but in current dir
>
>1.getfile() is a vfp dialog opening files but it works programmatly only in one current directory.
>GETFILE() will always start at the default directory.
>manually,can navigate into directories inside this dialog box only.
>then if you dont want to use chdir "CD" ,fix the initial dir and choose any goaled dir.when done return to your initial dir.
>
>

>local m.x,lcfilename,mynewFolder
>m.mynewFolder=home(1)
>m.x=sys(5)+sys(2003)   &&current dir
>set defa to (m.mynewfolder  )
>m.lcfilename=getfile("app")  &&any extension
>messagebox(m.lcfilename)
>set defa to (m.x)
>

>
>2. the showOpen standard windows dialog box to open file(mscomdlg.commondialog class activeX) have the same behavior.vfp one is maybe derived from.
>
>

>loComDialog = createobject("mscomdlg.commondialog")
>with loComDialog
>.Filter = "All Files (*.*)|*.*|Text Files(*.txt)|*.txt|Batch Files (*.bat)|*.bat"
>.MaxFileSize=100
>.ShowOpen()
>MESSAGEBOX(.FileName)
>endwith
>

>
>3.you can tweak the vfp getdir() (folder browse dialog) function to handle as well the files.
>its done with the 16384 flag
>GETDIR([cDirectory [, cText [, cCaption [, nFlags [, lRootOnly]]]]])
>if you set nFlag to 16384 the files can be returned but vfp team dont finish the work here.the file is returned like a directory with a "\" at the end.
>note you can specify any folder or restrict the search to any folder (set in the getdir(...).
>
>

>local lcfilename
>lcfilename=getdir(home(1),"open filename ","browse for filenames/folders",16384)
>if not empty(m.lcfilename)
>m.lcfilename=substr(m.lcfilename,1,len(m.lcfilename)-1)
>messagebox(m.lcfilename)
>endi
>*update: can use also : JUSTPATH(m.lcfilename)
>

>
>
>update: for whose can use scripts there many good solutions of VBScript File Browser in :
>

>https://gist.github.com/mlhaufe/1034241
>
>