>>s (we hit SQL Server but certain DBF's that are readonly are in the EXE, and we've used a small loader to handle updating of the EXE and other related files for at least 15 years).

Ditto, until UAC began to SNAFU the updater and create support burden... we find that most of our customers have desktop image gurus with their own clever ways to deploy, with SNAFU if other IT personnel copy exes manually for their own convenience.

Which is one of the reasons I like running from a server. Only one copy to get right! And with VFP exes compressing to only a few meg via Refox or VFP C++ Compiler, network load can be minimal- about the size of an MP4 pop song, not so much compared to the cumulative bandwidth typically consumed by cool modern HTML apps. FWIW, we perform most of our app testing now with apps hosted on a $50 Raspberry Pi...

More recently we have begun slightly tinkering with a table accessed via RV so there's a "base table fields changed" error that declares itself as a Version Error if somebody fails to update all the PCs.