Don-

>Thanks for your suggestion. Actually my original code used MODI FILE rather than MODI COMM. I switched to MODI COMM when I started to debug and couldn't find MODI FILE in the help system. Did they drop it with the V7 release?

It's still there.

> Either way I get the same error. I tried substituting your code suggestion IE
>
>IF ! FILE("c:\program files\freemansoftware\tip\fedcodes.txt")
> MESSAGEBOX( "Oops! " + "c:\program files\freemansoftware\tip\fedcodes.txt does not exist", 0 )
>ELSE
> modi file "c:\program files\freemansoftware\tip\fedcodes.txt"
>ENDIF
>
>with the same results. The IF statement seems to see the file OK so it moves to the MODI FILE but the MODI FILE returns the error that it is a bad path or filename. Go figure!! I should mention that the "user pc" and the "developer's pc" are the same. In the user's case I'm running the compiled EXE from an installation directory
>(c:\program files\freemansoftware\tip) and in the developer's case I'm running via the VFP7 developer's interface. The file reference is absolute and points the the same file in both cases so it shouldn't matter.
>
>Any more ideas?

It works alright for me. I just tried a little test including compiling an EXE. So, I'd suggest that you run the EXE from with VFP from the installation directory. Make sure you get the same error. Then if you do, break the program, put a break point on the IF !FILE() line. Cancel then restart the program. When the program breaks, try the modi file command and the if file() command too from the command window and see if you can gather more clues.

Oh, also, check what difference there may be between SET('PATH') between runtime and development time.