The parameter given to initialdir is surrounded in braces {~a}. On the windows platform, the directory will usually end in a backslash, such as {c:\whatever\} which acts to escape out the close brace. Putting a space after the ~a seems to fix this. Here are my new definitions for those functions, which also flesh out the parameters for get-save-file; I'm not including a diff because I have a number of other changes in there as well. (defun get-open-file (&key (filetypes '(("All Files" "*"))) (initialdir (namestring *default-pathname-defaults*)) multiple parent title initialfile) (let ((files (with-output-to-string (s) (format s "{") (dolist (type filetypes) (let ((name (first type)) (wildcard (second type))) (format s "{{~a} {~a}} " name wildcard))) (format s "}")))) (format-wish "senddatastrings [tk_getOpenFile ~ -filetypes ~a ~@[ -initialdir {~a }~] -multiple ~a ~ ~@[ -parent ~a~] ~@[ -title {~a}~] ~@[ -initialfile {~a }~]]" files initialdir (if multiple 1 0) (and parent (widget-path parent)) title initialfile) (read-data))) (defun get-save-file (&key (filetypes '(("All Files" "*"))) (initialdir (namestring *default-pathname-defaults*)) parent title initialfile) (let ((files (with-output-to-string (s) (format s "{") (dolist (type filetypes) (let ((name (first type)) (wildcard (second type))) (format s "{{~a} {~a}} " name wildcard))) (format s "}")))) (format-wish "senddatastring [tk_getSaveFile ~ -filetypes ~a ~@[ -initialdir {~a }~] ~ ~@[ -parent ~a~] ~@[ -title {~a}~] ~@[ -initialfile {~a }~]]" files initialdir (and parent (widget-path parent)) title initialfile) (read-data))) (defun choose-directory (&key (initialdir (namestring *default-pathname-defaults*)) parent title mustexist) (format-wish "senddatastring [tk_chooseDirectory ~@[ -initialdir {~a }~]~@[ -parent ~a~]~@[ -title {~a}~]~@[ -mustexist ~a~]]" initialdir (and parent (widget-path parent)) title (and mustexist 1)) (read-data)) _________________________________________________________________ Find sales, coupons, and free shipping, all in one place!  MSN Shopping Sales & Deals http://shopping.msn.com/content/shp/?ctid=198,ptnrid=176,ptnrdata=200639