The folder path is a simple folder name off of the c drive The Win10 properties say read only, but it is not. I was able to create and change new txt files with notepad, I am able to create a new database or add new columns to an existing db file in the same folder. But I continue to get "unable to open database file", witch the file folder name and file name are correctly shown in the sqlconnection1.parameters. The same code runs fine on my windows 7 desktop. On both systems the path contains the sqlite3.dll file. The Win10 computer was a recent Windows install via "reset". The delphi was then installed from the same ESD file as used for my working Win7 computer. The same program can successfully connect to Oracle and Interbase on both computers. I wrote a program with 2 lines of code, for the button1.click: edit1.text := sqlconnection1.params[2]; // shows me the db file sqlconnection1.connected := true; and edit2.text shows "database = c:\newff\myfile.db";