Luc,
Just for interest- try compiling your app using VFP Compiler and put the runtimes in the same folder as the exe. We have VFP apps that initialize (including SQL Server connections) at customer sites in a fraction of a second- too quick even to read the splash screen- and run like scalded cats. The commercial version of VFP Compiler actually can be quicker than native VFP with some kinds of arithmetic because it cuts down the interpreter calls.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1