"Sounds like someone got you the debug version of the filter." jnelso99, I did enough checking last night to find out that Microsoft starting with .NET, has quit supporting giving out loose copys of the runtime libraries even with the .net application libraries in msupdate, but as far as I can tell, although it is frowned upon it does not seem to be illegal to distribute them with a debug version of the application at least not yet; that does seem to be a misconception, though. I also found that the libraries should go with the application folder and never with the windows system folder and it is the programmers responsibility to ensure that the proper copies of the libraries are included in the project file. If I ever find out which plugin made with MSVC 7.1 is the culpret I will be sure to contact the vender and let them know about it. In the meantime every time I open up P.S. I get this stupid MSVCP71D.DLL error - ah well what can ya do? Thanks for the concern - I'll solve the mystery of which plugin it is when I have time: a search by date might narrow it down as an older plugin would not have the .net libraries. Thanks again, - TJ