>This code is great! Is there any way to change the cursor to an animated cursor?
>
>>>>Look in the files section here under Win32API. I think there's a sample of controlling the mouse pointer with API calls which are more reliable than setting it from within FoxPro.
>>>>
>>>>>I would like to have more control over the appearance of the MousePointer. Particularly, I want to show an hourglass whenever the system is doing something. I want to control when it turns to an hourglass and when it reverts back to the default. I tried "_screen.MousePointer=11" but that only works when the mouse is over the _screen. How can I get it to show the hourglass no matter what it's over?

In general you can, but only for the development environment. Animated cursors and custom cursors still don't work in .EXE See MS KB article Q157727

Nick