Mike -

I finally found an ap note on the MS web with an example of a Config file application, and I even got it to work, for what it's worth:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...EN-US%3B313405

The config file format is in a klutzy XML format from a user's perspective. I would also still have to do a case statement to load a list of variables. As far as I can tell, the only thing this method does is that it offloads building a sorted list onto the config file. If I write code build a sorted list from a text file, I've got exactly the same capabilities. So, I'm abandoning the config file and rolling my own.