>You know, I think that this is the problem:
>
>Before I put in the RELEASE command to RELEASE oExcel, oWorkBook, a bunch of the EXCEL.EXE processes were piling up (threads of them) in the Task Manager (or stack) and were never closed; I figured this out later when I opened Task manager, and then killed every one of the EXCEL processes, shut down my machine and did a cold boot.
>
>While testing my program the first few times, I wasn't seeing the piled up traffic accident of EXCEL.EXE processes operating in the background. After the cold boot, I ran the same VFP program with all the good code in there and after it ran, opened up task manager and could not see one EXCEL.EXE process running. I think I've got this licked now, but we shall soon see. It is simply a case of not cleaning up the trash after the party! (I HOPE!)

Could well be that other zombie instances of Excel were keeping the file open. Funny, though, that the current instance didn't complain about that - it seems to be conspiring with its other selves - but yelled at you.

That's my experience, too, that every time I do some automation, I better keep the bouncer at hand (and TaskKiller.exe is far better at that than Task Manager). There's always a stray copy creeping somewhere. Actually, it's a sign of getting it right, when they stop appearing.