Yes, I want to have some distributed files in my application that are not
"repaired".

Just to be clear, the "normal repair situation", seems to be invoked
whenever the user changes a distributed file (installed by the MSI file) and
then invokes the program.  Instead of simply starting the program the
"repair" is invoked and the users changes are lost by the installer replacing
it with the original file and only then the program is started.

This is extremely confusing to the user who has followed directions to edit
and set the configuration file to his/her specific share.

I naively assumed there is a setting in the VS installation build area to
not do this "repair" behavior for specific files which I asked about in my
original post.  Sorry that was unclear.

While this is interesting and admirable behavior for files that are critical
for the application to run correctly, how do I distribute a configuration
file that can be changed by the user without invoking this dictatorial big
brother?

Thanks,

Dave Boyd