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> So I don't have to worry about this in general -- just hard code for to handle the dtproperties table, if it exists.

Now that I've seen the article, that is exactly the case. Enterprise Manager thinks any system called dtproperties is a system table -- regardless of settings in system table! Kudos to Karen D. for discovering and documenting this. I have her Inside SQL server -- she is a wonderful resource.

And thanks again to Michael Levy. If I'm going to be doing SQL server stuff SQL Mag is a must read resource -- one that as a newbie I did not know about.