I just installed VFP8 on new PC and saw the same problem. Search path is saved but isn't read. Try to add config.fpw to the VFP8 home directory. That should fix the problem but you'll have to reenter search path and save it.

>The search path is 1002 chars, but i tried with 10 char and get the same result, id did not see any other settings affected.
>
>>How long is search path? Are any other settings affected?
>>
>>>I tried on 2 different machine, WINXP Pro SP1 and a WIN2K Server SP3 and i see the same behavior. Both machine still have VFP7 installed.
>>>
>>>>Does it save and uses other setting? There're three things that can overwrite settins in the registry
>>>>1. Command-line -A switch
>>>>2. PATH= in the config.fpw
>>>>3. SET PATH TO in the VFP startup program.
>>>>Did you check all of them?