>>>>>>Do you think it would work well running two instances of an EXE to test for record contentions and locking, etc?
>>>>>
>>>>>For that it's simpler to just run two EXEs (or two instances of VFP) on the same OS....
>>>>>Regards,
>>>>>Viv
>>>>
>>>>We need to be able to check over a network and I thought that VM might provide that, but it looks like not.
>>>
>>>Viv is right. You can run more than one instance of the exe in a single host OR a single vm with your database on a network, or not.
>>
>>I was hoping to emulate a true multi-user network environment on the laptop. That does not look like an option.
>
>There was a time, when I had just one computer to do my development on and I had to test it's operation on a network that I didn't have.
>
>I created a subdirectory and put all my database files in it then I created a share of that directory.
>
>Next, I mapped it as a network drive connecting to it as an M: drive (example)

There's also the good old

net use m: \\127.0.0.1\sharenamehere

which actually forces the OS to employ network protocols - locking etc. I guess mapping your local drive does the same - the difference between that and this is that my way doesn't need to know the machine's name, but still needs to know the share name, so no gain unless you create the share programmatically, i.e. under your own control.