>Actually, the error only occurs when I'm running the app outside of fox. If i run it stand alone, I get the error. If i call it from the command window inside fox, it's fine. what gives???

You have somewhere in the code the command that is not supported at runtime. Usualy it's SET STEP or SUSPEND but could be some others. You can find the list of such commands in the help file or at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/fox7help/html/dgtskremovingrestrictedvisualfoxprofeaturesfiles.asp.