>>>>>If you want XP machines to access a shared config file, it'll have to be hosted on something still running SMB1. That could be an older/legacy server, a repurposed XP workstation, or some sort of Linux/Samba host. Some routers allow plugging in a USB stick to be shared via SMB so you may already have that capability in place. Otherwise something like a Raspberry Pi 3B with case and power supply can be had for less than $100.
>>>>
>>>>Thanks Naoto and Al. I suspected that the XP machines might be a problem. Thanks for confirming that. I'm afraid to say that we're probably going to have to live with the risk. I guess we could use an ini file on the server that would point to a SQL Server that would have the same data in the same structure. But that would be a lot of work on our part.
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>>>Tsk, tsk... just add a line copying the RO file from server to each local dir at start and access from there, Bill the big work part and send a szable percentage here ;-))
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>>Kind of a chicken-and-egg situation: if SMB1 is turned off, the XP boxes can't connect to the server to download the RO DBF in the first place...
>
>If we assume that you don't need to update the application nor read-only DBF files, you could sneakernet them.

Or even embed them in the EXE.