Maybe I'm misreading, but it sounds like you're saying you can't see your changes (during runtime) w/o exiting first.

If this is correct, Something I would check for is duplicate filenames (ie: "myWork.*" in 2 separate folders). My guess is, at some point your search path is changed so you (VFP) are finding the wrong copy of the code (which doesn't include your latest changes). After rebooting, your original settings are restored (pathing) and you can see your changes again.

(You can use all the suggestions, they're good for resetting most if not all of your settings, but you shouldn't need them from what you described.)

BTW, make sure you are in 'development' mode ("SET DEVELOPMENT ON" or Tools|Options|General tab), which forces a recompilation if the timestamp of the compiled code is older than the latest source code.