More information about FoxPro 2.6 and Win2k problems.

It seems that if you have a network printer set as your default printer and no network connection present that you

can not use FoxPro 2.6 for development. If you try and modify a screen then it exists with no messages. When running

an EXE if you try and preview a report FoxPro exits as well. If you restore the network connection or change the

printer to a different printer all is well again. This is a summary of our findings:

1) If your default windows printer is set to LPT1: and it is off / not present / present then FoxPro functions

correctly.
2) If your default windows printer is on a network and the printer is off and and you have a network connection

FoxPro functions correctly.
3) If your default windows printer is on a network and the network connection is not present (on your local PC)

FoxPro fails to work.

Situation 3 can easily be tested by doing the following:
Set the windows default printer to a network printer.
1. Load FoxPro 2.6
2. Modify a form.
3. Note that all is OK.
4. Unplug network cable from PC. (Marvel at how well Win2k copes and gives you a nice message in a bubble over the

system tray)
5. Modify same form.
6. .
7. Change default printer to a local printer.
8. Load FoxPro 2.6 (because it crashed)
9. Modify form.
10. All OK.

This situation is fairly unlikely - your network connection being lost while the system is in use. What is a more

likly situation is that you have a laptop with a default windows printer set to an office network printer. You take

the laptop away from the network - home / customer site etc and try to use FoxPro 2.6 and it crashes. No error

messages or clue as to what it is doing. If you disable the network connection in Win2k the problem doesn't occur.

You have to unplug the network cable from the PC.

I sure hope this issue is addressed in a Win2k compatibility update...