Thanks Eivind. But since you named your trick #1, pass me #2, and possibly #3 as well. Jokes aside, that is not a solution for a very simple reason (aside form any compelling reason that, for now at least. forces me to have a w10 PC and a w7 PC): it may not be a solution at all. In w7 all worked ok until 2 months ago, then the weird behaviour. That suggests to me that something changed somewhere, and that may change in W10 a swell. In W7 or in Delphi? I do not know. But I would like to know WHAT causes the behavior so I can reset it to the desired value. Because I am not sure that that inadvertent change will not happen in W10 as well in the future and I would be back to the same undesired situation.