Here is a technique I have used for a number of years on a variety of systems.  On a Sesame application I am developing I use it to create an "Admin Mode".  Currently, Admin Mode displays the command panel and non Admin Mode hides it.  Eventually I'll use it to allow adding new records.

Set a variable based simply on whether a particular file exists, e.g.,

stat sAdminMode as Boolean = False

If FileExists("c:\Sesame2\Admin.txt") then
{
     sAdminMode = True
     @MsgBox("","You are in Admin Mode.","")
}

The mere existence of a file entry -- even a zero-length file, changes the variable -- hence, the presence of the file acts as a "switch".

There are several advantages to this:

1) It doesn't require any changes to either the startup command parameters, any ini file, or any of the application code.

2) It is pretty easy to implement.

3) It pretty much makes hacking of the affected code impossible -- no unauthorized modifications to startup parameters, ini files, etc., will have any effect.

4) A true administrator can add or delete the switch files on any user's machine as needed (e.g., for troubleshooting) without changes that might cause some other problem.

As currently set up, global code in my Status form checks for Admin.txt.  Of course, that means other forms, etc., don't know about Admin Mode. (But users will mainly be using the Status form.)

For an application-wide switch the code should be in Application Program code and should set a ClientLocalValue("variable_name", value)