>I dunno what you mean, but I just did an simple experiment. I opened the table in VFP and then did the shutdown of Windows via Start->Shutdown button. VFP has been shutdowned without any problem and the table has been closed properly during VFP shutdown.

That's what I meant. :) Shutting down Windows (properly) is no different to a program (that's written correctly) than closing the program first, then shutting down Windows.

> But I would repeat that it would be better to close the tables before issuing shutdown...

There doesn't seem to be any reason for this.