the hanging reference has bothered me, and I think a possible solution is as follows:

if not isnull(loMincontrol)
  local lcMinControl
  lcMinControl = sys(1272,locontrol)
  loMinControl = .null.
  lcMinControl = 'thisform'+substr(lcMinControl,at('.',lcMincontrol)) + '.setfocus()'
  eval(lcMinControl)
endif

>You probably do not want to set first focus to any object which has a controlcount such as GRID,PAGE,CONTAINER et al.
>
>revised method code is as follows:
>
>

>local loMinControl
>loMinControl = .null.
>For each loControl in ThisForm.Controls
>  if not if pemstatus(locontrol,'controlcount',5)
>    if pemstatus(locontrol,'setfocus',5) and locontrol.enabled
>      if isnull(loMinControl) or loControl.tabindex < lomincontrol.tabindex
>        lomincontrol = locontrol
>      endif
>    endif
>  endif
>endfor
>
>note: loMincontrol is a hanging reference until end of setfocus
>
>if not isnull(loMincontrol)
>  loMinControl.setfocus()
>endif
>loMinControl = .null.
>

>
>
>
>
>>>>>I did force a SetFocus() on one of my control whenever I call the Refresh() method. This solves the problem.
>>>>>
>>>>>I was wondering, instead of adding a control, is there a way to detect the control #1 in the tab sequence so we can focus on that?
>>>>
>>>>You could loop through the Controls() collection looking for the first visible control that has a SetFocus method that is not a grid, but I think that would be a PITA.
>>>
>>>The advantages of it is that we will set the focus to the first control of the form, the focus will be on a visible one so we will see and we won't have to handle an extra control to handle that workaround.
>>
>>I have only tested this code for the conditions in it. There may be other factors that prevent a control from receiving focus, like visible property.

>>local loMinControl
>>loMinControl = .null.
>>for each loControl in ThisForm.Controls
>>   if isnull(loMinControl)
>>      if upper(loControl.BaseClass) <> "GRID" and pemstatus(loControl, 'SetFocus', 5) and loControl.Enabled
>>         loMinControl = loControl
>>      endif
>>      loop
>>   endif
>>   if upper(loControl.BaseClass) <> "GRID" and pemstatus(loControl, 'SetFocus', 5) and loControl.Enabled
>>      if loControl.TabIndex < loMinControl.TabIndex
>>         loMinControl = loControl
>>      endif
>>   endif
>>endfor
>>if not isnull(loMinControl)
>>   loMinControl.SetFocus()
>>endif
>>