I'm not sure I understand how having the runtimes download/install compounds the problem any worse than it already is. I mean it seems like the same problem would exist if my VFP9 application's runtimes and your VFP9 SP1 runtimes came with our apps and installed into "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VFP". Placing the runtimes in the application's root folder (or at least offering this as an option) would mitigate DLL hell to some extent. But, the problem exists with or without the runtimes being available through the net. Or am I missing your point?

>>>It's not enough to declare that version isn't a problem. Please explain how would you handle VFP9 and VFP9SP1 runtimes in this scenario. IOW, what if your application requires VFP9 and mine on the same computer requires VFP9SP1. How that would work?
>>
>>Couldn't each EXE have a runtime version ID stored within it, ie. RuntimeId = VFP9, VFP9SP1, VFP9SP2, VFP10, <g> and make the appropriate request to a remote server?
>>
>>http://foxruntimes.org/vfp7.zip
>>...
>>...
>>http://foxruntimes.org/vfp9.zip
>>http://foxruntimes.org/vfp9sp1.zip
>>http://foxruntimes.org/vfp9sp2.zip
>>http://foxruntimes.org/vfp10.zip
>>...
>>???
>>
>>In this scenario, I assume that each application would store its runtime files in its application folder.
>
>Hi Malcolm,
>
>Anything is possible. :)
>However, your scenario is not even close to the topic of discussion.