>I am most definitely NOT using General fields in anything new. :-)
>
>The General field is only used in temporary cursors used to print reports. I don't use them anywhere in the system other than as a means of easily including images in reports. I agree that they're a bad idea, but it was the only way to create reports that would include a photo at the time.

Was it 1999? At the time I've seen the same technique applied in VFP5 apps.

I really don't know if it's a viable way today. It's a case of software rot - it relies on some mechanisms in the OS which may have changed meanwhile. It pre-dates COM automation (because it's not even proper automation, it's wrapped and you have no control, no object to play with), and even COM is out of favor nowadays (though I don't see it going away ever, it's too widespread).

General fields had a very limited usability back then, and were a dead end. I don't see your problem being fixed with general fields at all. You'll need something else. BTW, are you running it with 2.6 runtimes or within VFP? The latter is quite an option, not that hard to do at all. I once wrote a wrapper form in which to run a FPD app during a lunch break.