See if CMFCToolBar::LoadState[^] is called. Find it in the MFC sources and put a breakpoint on it. On my computer it's in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\atlmfc\src\mfc\afxtoolbar.cpp There is sufficient light for those who desire to see, and there is sufficient darkness for those of a contrary disposition. Blaise Pascal

Ok, I have decided that the code is getting executed, its just that when I step through in release mode it doesn't show me the actual steps it is taking nor are the value of the variables in the debugger valid. So back to my problem that prompted this message. My program gets an exception in release mode but not in debug, but if I can't step through the program or rely on the debug variables in release mode, then how do I find out what is causing the exception? I've turning on the debugging information /Zi, turned off optimization, and turned on generate debug info in the linker. Still can get no usefull info from the debugger in release mode. Any ideas? Ray

You need this: Surviving the Release Version[^]

I use the date stamp of my executable as the version number, which I append to the title of my main window. Here's how I get the info: // the version number of the app is the concatenation of the file's // date and time values: // yyyy.mm.dd.hh.mm static char appVersion[30]; void AteUtility_InitAppVersion (HINSTANCE hInstance) { char szFileName[MAX_PATH]; char szFileTitle[MAX_PATH]; WIN32_FIND_DATA fileData; FILETIME localModTime; SYSTEMTIME systemTime; GetModuleFileName (hInstance, szFileName, MAX_PATH); GetFileTitle (szFileName, szFileTitle, MAX_PATH); FindFirstFile (szFileName, &fileData); FileTimeToLocalFileTime (&fileData.ftLastWriteTime, &localModTime); FileTimeToSystemTime (&localModTime, &systemTime); sprintf(appVersion, "Version: %4.4d.%2.2d.%2.2d.%2.2d.%2.2d", systemTime.wYear, systemTime.wMonth, systemTime.wDay, systemTime.wHour, systemTime.wMinute); } Hope this helps! ;) 'til next we type... HAVE FUN!! -- Jesse