Timothy-

> I was talking with respect to network shares. But I tried your example and a no go.

I can open two instances of VFP, use a file (non-exclusively) in one, and append from it in the second VFP session. Are you sure you used it shared?

> Is having 2 instances of foxpro open on 1 machine simulate network conditions?

It certainly simulates sharing files, yes.

>My goal is to be able to create a temp dbf from a number of other dbf's whcih very well may be open by other folks here. The copy to command might work?

Copy to will work for the first table you use, if you create the file with a unique file name on the local workstation. Remember, unless you limit the number of instances of your app, your user can have it open more than once.