Henry-

>In VFP 6.0, (not so in Fox 2.6), the MODIFY window opens up with NO SCROLLBARS. If you maximize or simply resize the window, the scrollbars appear.

I just tried this and found that if you use the IN WINDOW clause, the scroll bars work correctly. Perhaps, this would be useful for you.

* Define Window Viewer Name oViewer From 5,1 To 8,30 
ox = createobject('form')
ox.visible = .t.
tcfile = getfile()
Modify File (tcFile) In Window (ox.name) NoModify NoMenu