Q. What is in inst.v and when and why is it generated?

A. This file stores the default application that gets loaded when you start AVS/Express. The objects specified in this file become children of the Applications object.

The version of inst.v in the installed project creates the "Select Default App" dialog at startup.

When you hit the check box on this dialog that saves the default application choice, it creates a new inst.v in your current project directory. The next time that you start up AVS/Express, it will load this inst.v instead of the inst.v that creates the "select application dialog".