>>Hi folks.
>>
>>I posted this question once and got no response, I figured I'd try one more time. I am working on the development a product in VFP which will be sold commercially, and therefore the overall appearance of the product is very important.
>>
>>The biggest problem we're having in that respect is startup. When the program first loads, the initial VFP menu is displayed, then the custom menu replaces it, then the custom icon appears, then the main window maximizes. These events do not occur simultaneously, and they all take noticable time. Frankly, startup is very ugly.
>Of course PC/monitor speed is the ultimate solution to this problem, but in the meantime, what's a good strategy for opening an EXE for aesthetic purposes? Any ideas out there?

This is a much asked question. One of the things I did was to use the Win32API to hide the window until I call all my menus, maximize, splash screens, etc.

Try this to hide the window:

DECLARE integer FindWindow IN Win32api integer, string
DECLARE integer ShowWindow IN Win32api integer, integer
PUBLIC FoxHWND SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED SW_SHOWNORMAL SW_SHOWMINIMIZED SW_SHOWGONE
SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED = 3
SW_SHOWNORMAL = 1
SW_SHOWMINIMIZED = 2
SW_SHOWGONE = 0
FoxHWND = FindWindow(0,_SCREEN.Caption)
FoxGone = ShowWindow(FoxHWND,SW_SHOWGONE)

And then to show it again:

FoxGone = ShowWindow(FoxHWND,SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED)

HTH,
Scot.