I see. This makes sense to me then. I would probably make the routine unzip the files to the local machine and work with them there. But, you know the details better than me, so you'll do what is right.

Take it easy,
Joe

>Hi Joe. The purpose is to enable the customer to occasionally review archived files on a small network system. Rarely used...once or so monthly. You are correct. If they used the files daily I would recommend buying a big disk stack and skipping the compression.
>
>*******
>I am a little curious. Why do you want to do this? There will be (loss of) speed issues. And it will complicate things a lot I think. For instance, when you access a file, do you intend to expand it first, then access the expanded files? This would raise many issues...
>
>Joe
>
>>Is there a way to zip and unzip tables from within Foxpro or Fox exes? I found nothing under the help index.
>>
>>Windows has its own compression tool. We ought to be able to call it from VFP, but how?
>>
>>The goal is to enable a client to operate upon compressed data without manually decompressing/recompressing. Any ideas?