* starting application by double-clicking on program icon rather than shortcut yields same result
* started program from command line to see if there was any output on console -- nope.
* Made sure computer wasn't configured for secondary monitor (with the secondary disconnected) -- ran across that once before.
* disabled hardware acceleration (I've seen this affect it) -- no change.
* normal DPI settings (have come across weird stuff whenever you fiddle with DPI settings).
* fonts required by application are indeed installed.
* double-checked to make sure proper foxw2600.esl is loaded (renaming the existing copy resulted in expected "cannot find foxpro runtime" error message).
* checked for extra CONFIG.FPW -- no extra ones found that would account for this behavior
* it did not appear that the desktop theme was customized.
* no funky resolution selected -- was set to 1024x768

Really puzzling...