I'm not sure I understand now. Are you running an app or an exe? What happens if you build an exe and exit vfp entirely and run your exe? Is the menu visible in the main foxpro window? I don't understand the 'development environment underneath the app' portion of your message. The main foxpro window is a part of your app when it runs and that is where the menu should be visible. You put your form inside it and size the main foxpro window to just outside the size of your form or stretch your form to fit better inside the main foxpro window...
Can you post your form properties?

Tracy:
To answer your questions...
I'm running the main.prg from within VFP. I am not running the EXE. Incidentally, if I DO run the EXE, the same thing happens with the menu... nothing.
What I mean by 'development environment underneath the app' is just being inside the development VFP window. When I run the main.prg, the menu does not appear, and when I exit the program, the menu does appear, having replaced the regular FoxPro menu within VFP.
Is there a quickie way that I can get a listing of the form's properties?
Rich