The problem does not relate to file(), but to HIDDEN ini file attribute, I believe. Use instead:
?adir(aa,"D:\MQCORE\CIC_FTP.INI","H")

>Hi,
>
>I found this problem in VFP60 and VFP70 (at least!), the command FILE()
>returns .f. if the file has extension INI, I have a file
>D:\MQCORE\FTP.INI and is readable and you can open it in notepad, or other application, but this command returns .f., and I noticed other more behave the same
>
>? FILE("D:\MQCORE\CIC_FTP.INI")
>
>I want to upload the data to a cursor using the APPEND FROM command, but because of this problem this command pop ups an error message ( you can
>try!)
>
>Is there anybody who had the same problem? how did you resolved?
>
>Thanks!