>George,
>
>My situation here is this. All the tables, index's, runtime files, exe are located in a network directory. Everone has access to the app in this way through a shortcut to the exe. I don't have to install the app on every machine. If I could put into the startup code a way to check for the existence of the DSN's and create them as necessary it would save me alot of steps. One other chalenge is we are running some NT's, 98, and win2k machines.

Steven,

With all due respect, I think this is a bad idea. There are some elements that may, especially in the case of a desktop app, require registration. The easiest way is to do a proper install. Most installations do not require that a developer do them, for they're easy enough to be done by the most casual user.