>sorry guys but i am real new to vfp and oop programming in general. i want to use some objects that are in a third party vcx in my forms. how do i register the vcx class and then register the objects? have looked at a couple of reference manuals but i guess it is so simple i am overlooking it. then the last question is after i get this to work and create an .exe. does the recipient person need to register the controls on their machine or will the .exe take this into account?

If they're in a VCX and you include the VCX in the project, then the executable will contain the necessary class libraries without further work. If the classes are in OCX (ActiveX controls) or DLL files, you'll have to include them as separate files, and most likely register them during installation.