>I noticed that when I access the database on a different workstation using the following specification and OS of computer, the result was:
>
>Windows NT on P-III with 64MB Ram - faster
>Windows 98 (2nd Edition) on P-III with 128MB Ram - slower
>
>Our main server is powered by P-III (700 Mhz with 128 MB Memory). We are using Windows NT 4.0 as our main server operating server...
>
>Why is that the Windows NT runs faster than Window 98 where in fact that the Windows 98 has enough memory with fast CPU...

Hello, Ismael.

Performance in Win98 is diffficult to troubleshoot. Indeed, if you take the same machine but perform a clean install of Win98 and make your test again, you most probably obtain a better performance.

In my experience, Win9x (and ME) deteriorates (in any sense, not just performance) with time due to bad application unninstalling, trashed registry, and its poor memory management makes that any service running slow down things more that it really needs.

NT is far better in many of this aspects, and Win2000, as far as I used it, even better sometimes.

You best approach to fix the Win98 would be, IMO, to try to clean up any unnecesary services, and then tweak a little with the virtual memory and disk access settings.

Also, there was an excelletn series of benchmarks published by Malcom Rubel in FoxPro Advisor a year or two ago (during many issues), that explained how VFP uses memory, disk access, index tags, and a lot of other things. An excellent resource if you can get it (you can search for the articles on the index at FPA web site).

Hope this helps.