>Does this mean I have to re-index before every search. There are approx. 500,00 Names and addresses in this file.

NO!

>
>In any case I am using the '$' (contained in) feature i.e. SELECT * FROM myfile WHERE 'FRANK' $ UPPER(NAME). I don't think an index will help here.
>
>I need a data selection for 'FRANK' contained anywhere in the field name. Under XP this runs reasonably fast. But under WIN 7/WIN 8 it is considerably slower, and at times, not always but at times in can grind to a halt.

I wonder if the Win7+ issues are about virtualization of your data. See http://doughennig.com/papers/..%5CPub%5CWindows7.pdf

Tamar