I dont use borland, so a step by step I cant provide..however, I can offer you some tips poser does not require itself to be in the registry for it to run. I have it on my e drive, and have many times reformatted the c drive. Poser still runs flawlessly, even tho its not registered. my suggestion would be to allow the user the options: let the program search for poser (by looking at the registry) if it fails to find it..ask the user about a recursive search of the entire computer, or give them the option to find poser themselves and give them the 'find it themselves' option right up front. This would cover all bases. as for a good way to find info, when I write code..I use the internet and simply search for what Im interested in. There is so much info on programming on the web that you can do anything. Perhaps a search for "borland programming and reading the windows registry" or something similar. luck BT