>Hi George:
>
>Try this...
>
>1. SCREEN=OFF in your CONFIG.FPW
>
>2. Have your TIMER read 2 other files just like you read your "STOP" file. a)Visible.txt and b)Invisible.txt. Of course only one or the other can exist at any one time.
>
>3. Obviously, when Visible.txt exists Form.Visible = .T. and Invisible.txt will make Form.Visible = .F.
>

There are several problems using VFP as a service, not the least of which is that VFP wants a Desktop, and services don't run under one in the usual sense; there's an old article in MSJ from October of 1997 - Design a Windows NT Service to Exploit Special Operating System Facilities by Jeffrey Richter, and another from March, 1998 - Why Do Certain Win32 Technologies Misbehave in Windows NT Services? by Frank Kim (they're in the MSDN Library) that cover many of the issues.