Well it looks like the answers here put me on the right track - but I'm still confused. I had to put some trace code in the application and recompile it. It now tells me that sys(2003) is pointing to c:\windows\system32 in win XP, while in win98 it's pointing to the same directory where the exe is located.

I'm not sure why the difference.

I also do not know why in XP, it empties the foxuser.dbf that's in the same directory as the exe.

config.fpw is the same in both OS

resource=on
screen=off
title=