Thanks - I did think the behaviour was strange. I shall remember in future - do you have any ideas about another problem I have?
I _screen.visible = .f. in my start program and I call an as top level splash form. This form checks licence details etc and then calls another as top level form, either a login form or a licence form. In both cases I seem to loose control when the splash form is released. The new form appears but the focus seems to be on one of my desktop icons - or in other words the form seems deactivated. When I click anywhere on the form it springs to life and the cursor starts flashing away etc...???