One idea, although not 100% failsafe...

Try storing the key value encoded. The encoded key will look much more like the rest of the hex stored in the exe, if viewed in a text editor. This ~could~ be reverse-engineered, but the hack would have to know your setup, figure out the encoding used, get your encryption api, AND find and decode your key in the compiled code. Not likely

*- choose a key, and do following in command window
lcKey = "your key here"
_cliptext = STRCONV(lcKey,13)

*- in some header file
#DEFINE C_KEY "ctrl+V" && (paste in your encoded key)

*- function to decrypt a value
FUNCTION mydecrypt
LPARAMETERS tcValue
RETURN decrypt(tcValue,STRCONV(C_KEY,14)) && cipher50.fll
ENDFUNC

*- function to encrypt value
FUNCTION myencrypt
LPARAMETERS tcValue
RETURN encrypt(tcValue,STRCONV(C_KEY,14)) && cipher50.fll
ENDFUNC

-> Seth