You can hide shared folders through the use of the $ symbol in the share name but then you will have to include it in your vfp app's drive mappings either with a drive letter (you could have a table that stores the file locations or have it hard coded but I don't like the hard coded idea) to the location of the hidden directory or UNC. Otherwise you will still have to have a drive mapped to it which they could then see in windows explorer under the drive letter. You could also use profiles to limit explorer on the workstations.

Maybe someone else will have a better idea...

>Thank you very much for the response
>you are absolutely right in the analysis.
>
>but, is there a way of writing VFP executable where it opens DBFs in folders not shared ?
>it is because the client does not want the DBFs seen in explorer.
>
>
>>If I understand you correctly: the test and the hidden directory both reside on the same machine (machine 1). The test folder is shared, but the hidden folder is not. On a separate workstation (machine 2), the test folder on machine 1 is mapped to drive e:. Is that correct?
>>
>>If so, hidden is not available to the public (machine 2) because the folder is not shared. Drive e: on machine 2 is only pointing to the shared 'test' folder on machine 1, not to any other folders on machine 1. That is the purpose of not sharing out folders that you do not want the public to have access to. If you want machine 2 to have access to the hidden folder on machine 1, you will have to share it first.
>>
>>
>>>i had a dbf hidden in c:\hidden\employee.dbf
>>>the folder c:\hidden is not shared
>>>
>>>i had a VFP exe residing in c:\test\test.exe which is shared
>>>this test folder was mapped as e: on the workstation.
>>>
>>>inside the form the file was opened using
>>>
>>>use e:\hidden\employee
>>>
>>>why was the app not able to open the dbf ?
>>>
>>>is there a solution?
>>>
>>>thanks in advance