>I've simplified the app so form2 uses 3 freetables that appear no where else in the program. These tables must be opened exclusively because they will be appended, deleted, and zapped programatically. Again in the dev environment it works, in the exe I get "File Access Denied!" As far as Cetin's comment, I checked and there are no free tables included in the project.

Something has its hands on those files. Either someone else has a shared or exclusive access, or you are opening the files else where.

open the debugger and put a watch on used("mydbf") and see where it gets opened and closed.