Many apologies. Thanks Witto and Jochen for your replies.

Please look at the code above. When the last line ($frmLoadFile.ShowModal) is executed, it shuts down the whole application. When that line is commented, processing continues. The problem does not occur when the resident directory is C:\Temp\SupportAssistants. The problem only occurs when the directory is C:\Program Files\SupportAssistants (note the space). The ShowModal method above does not reference the directory - thus there is no reason to quote ("") the statement.