Okay I saw a "hint" in there! The way I would have approached it probably is to actually do the XML parsing when one opens the Configuration form, and only then if the MAME version number is different. I saw that you can snag the data through the plugin itself (but then only if GameEx is running): Public Structure Mame_Info Public Players As String Public Control As String Public CloneOf As String Public Orientation As String Public VideoWidth As Integer Public VideoHeight As Integer Public Cocktail As Boolean End Structure ...but some crucial stuff is missing here and it's of no help in searching anyways when a user is trying to, say, change the switches for all the cocktail games or playch10.c games, etc. I'm totally hitting the wall with this XML thing. Your code is helpful but it's way more complex than my skill set allows for... But XML is the way of the future and if I don't sit down and figure it out now I'll be screwed later anyways. So here I am with a huge block of source code to parse MAME's XML and no idea how to implement it into my project. I hope no one was holding their breath waiting for me to figure out the XML reader. Why do you have to use an XML file anyway? Can't you just look for the value in a Stream Read and post results accordingly on the fly? Or is that just ridiculous? Thanks for your help on this one Ben, and I hope you don't mind holding my hand through this.