i have function works fine when running inside of visual studio debugging environment (with both debug , release configurations), when running app outside of ide, end-user do, program crashes. happens both debug , release builds. i'm aware of differences can exist between debug , release configurations (optimizations, debug symbols, etc) , @ least aware of differences between running app inside visual studio versus outside of (debug heap, working directory, etc). i've looked @ several of these things , none seem address issue. first time posting so; can find solution existing posts i'm stumped! i able attach debugger , oddly enough 2 different error messages, based on whether i'm running app on windows 7 versus windows 8.1. windows 7, error access violation , breaks right on return statement. windows 8.1, heap corruption error , breaks on construction of std::ifstream. in both cases, of local variables populated correctly know not matter of function not b...