Agreed here. Using the operating system does not prevent anyone from adding their own sys username to the userlist, in which case you would then need to protect the userlist. The other problem I have with this is locale and flexibility. In Thailand, your apps need to be as independent of the operating system as possible for many reasons. For example, here at this resort our systems are 'open'. Someone turns the machines on in the morning and it is used by many people in the course of the day without logging out. We have a very high turnover and we can't afford to train someone to administer NT or Winxx every few months. Yes, we also must train people to turn on the machines in the morning, the power goes out 2 or 3 times every day and UPS protection is only good for a few minutes. Also, the power fluxuates 20-30% in voltage, so even with NT set for autoshutdown with power loss, it is best to turn your equipment off when not used. My apps also have built in activity monitoring in case the user walks away without logging out of my app. Then there is the issue of protecting other parts of the program through password protection. In which case the OS is useless. I have complete login routines that set user permission levels and access to every menu item in all our programs, but the users still need to be able to get special permission quickly without changing their permissions profile. ie. passord protection is needed at the app level.
BTW, the originator of this thread is from Thailand. :)

>But his problem is with people who know how to access the tables directly from FoxPro, Access, Excel, etc. Changing how his FoxPro App/Exe validates users is not going to solve this. He's looking to protect his data from "back door" users.
>
>That means either encrypting it or changing network privileges to keep the wrong people out. And it probably means encrypting it, because the people he wants out are supposed to be able to get to the data through his program, just not through the "back door".
>
>Right, No Phua? Pardon me for speaking for you.
>
>>Here 'tis ----
>>

>>USE userlist ORDER username                   && Open the user table
>>cName=SUBSTR(SYS(0),AT("#",SYS(0))+2,15)      && Use SYS(0) to get current
>>                                              && user network user ID
>>IF SEEK(cName,"userlist")                     && If this user is OK
>>   RETURN .T.                                 && ...then Return True (OK)
>>ELSE
>>   RETURN .F.                                 && ...else Return False (Not OK)
>>ENDIF
>>