Paradox 10: Unable to open table

Hi.  Sorry for  bringing up what has probably been brought up before;  but I reviewed the threads and don't see it currently covered:

1) I was running Paradox 10 (the whole 2002 suite, actually, with SP 3, Hot Patch 4 and SP4) on Vista Home 6.0 with SP1 for the last year A-OK.

2) Today on trying to open a file, I got "Could not initialize BDE:  You have attempted to open a database that is in use by someone else, but the database cannot be shared.  You must set the location for the .NET control file".  [About that same time my audio driver was magically corrupted and I had to delete it and have Vista get me another]

3)  I tried screwing around with .NET.  PDOXUSRS.NET was in the root directory, its date and time are updated each time I try to read a file, and its contents, as read by Notepad, are a very brief  (I have 4 user identities, of which the main one and the one in which Paradox is installed is called "Fred").

4) I tried following an old forum suggestion of creating a special subdirectory off the root directory and pointing to it by tweaking the Borland entry in the registry.  None of this worked.

5)  I uninstalled Word Perfect Office 2002 and reinstalled, with the sp3, hot patch 4 and sp4.   Now on trying to open a file I don't get the old message but NOW get:  "UNABLE TO OPEN FILE".  Upon reinstallation, I had changed the working directory to: c:\Users\Public\Documents\MyFiles\Paradox_Data\Working\ (where my Pdox data files are);   however, when I go to check the working directory, the browsing tool is set at C:\Users\Public\Documents  (no "\MyFiles\Paradox_Data\Working\"), even though the filenames in the correct directory come up on the "Open" command.

Any ideas?

Thanks,  Fred

Did you locate and delete all the PARADOX.LCK and PDOXUSRS.LCK files in the shared-data directories?

-Al.

Additional info:  Since I last wrote, I have synchronized the location of PDOXUSRS.NET in fact and as called out in the Borland Database Engine - at c:/Users/Fred/Documents.

I have also given myself all rights to this directory, plus the :WORK: directory, which I have tried at several locations.  Upon invoking Paradox, I get the file viewer, which confirms the Work directory by listing each and every file in it;  but when I go to open any of them, I get "Unable to open file", plus a sub-message saying that the file is in use by someeone else;  and that I need to "reset" the NET file.

I am logged in as an Administrator and have ensured that all (3) other users (all me) are not logged in - also that their sessions have zero references to Paradox or the WP 2002 suite.

I currently am not using Vista's User Account Control (UAC);  but tried it using it previously with the same result.

I'm mystified - I've reinstalled Pdox 10 with the sp3, hot patch 4 and sp4 several times, just for luck.  Yesterday I was using Paradox 10 and had for the past year.  What am I doing wrong or do I need to do?  Any clues (or definitive directions!) would be appreciated.  Thanks, Fred.

Thanks, Al!  That did it.  I had seen that suggestion before in an old forum entry I had saved; but evidently I did not get 'em all then.  This time, I found 2 of each - one each in a)  the directory I had designated as WORK and b) the directory I had designated as PRIVATE.

Al, I really appreciate your taking the time to state what to you was probably trite and obvious.  I was dead without it!

Thanks,

Fred