A couple of SWAGs - first, if the CONFIG.FPW is embedded in the executable, the path is ignored, and the embedded copy is always referenced and never updated. An embedded CONFIG.FPW cannot be altered or redirected to a different file, a strong argument against embedding CONFIG files.

VFP also buffers some files which are read and retained in memory, that mightbe read instead of the new version of the files. If you run VFP 6, you might try issuing SYS(3056), to force VFP to re-read the registry and CONFIG.FPW values which correspond to registry entries in the development version (the entries are not respected by the runtime; it's one reason that my launcher creates a unique CONFIG for each VFP session it launches, specified with an -C command line designator, based on a template and some heuristics about the station's configuration. This way CONFIG.FPW fits the runtime environment at the time the runtime is launched, and I don't have to worry about making adjusts during app runtime; I adjust parameters and the launchers sets it up right at runtime.