IIRC, There was a bug in VFP8 Intelliseense that would reset _TALLY. Try to type it w/o space so Intellisence wouldn't kick in.

INSERT INTO test VALUES ("test")
?_tally

There was also another bag with SET NOTIFY CURSOR OFF that affected _TALLY as well but it was increasing it.

>I never noticed this, but is now in the way. When I issue a INSERT command the _TALLY reports zero record affected when in fact it should be 1.
>
>

>CREATE CURSOR test (name c(10))
>INSERT INTO test VALUES ("test")
>? _tally
>

>
>Help indicates that it should return 1.
>
>Is my wrong here?