Mystery solved (sort of). Installed VFP sp2 runtimes on the problem box and everything works now.

It doesn't explain why sp1 works fine on every other Win7 box, but at this point I'm declaring victory and running away!

Thanks everyone for helping me think about the problem.

Gary

>If it works, it's probably because Win7 is preventing your computer from making connections to another computer on the network over tcp/ip unless the program is running as admin. I've seen it on my Win7 desktop.
>
>Hank
>
>>Thanks, I'll give it a try. However, how does this affect using a connect string in the VFP IDE? Surely I should be able to get the string properly constructed and get a connection? I've never had a problem with that before and it's my preferred approach. The app reads an ini file to get that string and we can change it as needed.
>>
>>Thanks for the replies Hank, Naomi and Hugo.
>>
>>Gary
>>
>>>Hi Gary,
>>>
>>>since you are using sqlstringconnect(), which odbcad.exe you use doesn't make any difference.
>>>
>>>Go to your app exe in Windows explorer; right-click; go to Compatibility; click on Run this program as administrator. Click OK.
>>>
>>>Now run your app. See if that helps. If you don't want to click the UAC box whenever the program starts, I think (but am not certain) that you have to turn off UAC.
>>>
>>>hth,
>>>
>>>Hank
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>Hi all,
>>>>I’m trying to create a connection with SQL Server using sqlstringconnect(). I’ve done this about a zillion times over the years and work every day with VFP to over a dozen SQL Server and Sybase databases from Win2000, XP and Win7 clients, no problem.
>>>>
>>>>All of a sudden, we have a box that runs some processes that began to fail when the box was upgraded to Win 7. The connect string no longer works. I’m working through a remote desktop to get to this box, but surely that can’t matter. The app runs on the box, or used to, when a batch file is run by a timer. I just use the remote desktop to get to it.
>>>>
>>>>Anyway, I can create an ODBC DSN, user and system, on the box and they connect fine. I can ping the database server successfully. But I cannot get a connect string to work, either trusted connection or ODBC login. Can’t get sqlconnect(‘MyDSN’) to work either even though the DSN connects fine through the ODBC administrator.
>>>>
>>>>When the connect fails, I get an error to the effect that the server can’t be found. Specificlly:
>>>>SQLState: 08001
>>>>"Error locating server/instance specified"
>>>>
>>>>This even with the DSN connecting fine with the same server/instance.
>>>>
>>>>We have both the SQL Server 6.01 and SQL Server Native Client 10.0 drivers on the box and I can create DSN’s using either.
>>>>Any of this ring any bells for anyone?
>>>>
>>>>Thanks,
>>>>Gary