I am not involved in the encoding part. I did not write one single code for encoding. I get 3rd party XML files and i just want to decode them. To be very clear on this: I can't change the encoding, it is not my software, i do not develop it and i never had. I just got the source code for the de and encrypt part, so i may be able to import the XML files. I never wrote a single line VB code in my life. To be honest, i don't believe security is the issue, the developer just don't want anyone to be able to open it. That may not be an excuse for bad code but so far, i can't change it, i'm just happy now to be able to decode.