Well this did the trick. What I still don't understand though is why it's necessary to completly disable NAV's auto-protect service when I've already excluded the filetypes. After some testing it appears the workstations is where the problem lies. Disabling the service causes the project to open in 2 seconds as opposed to 15 or 20 minutes....needless to say a vast improvement.

>>ok I excuded these file extensions on both the server and workstation:
>>bmp, cur, dbc, dct, dcx, frt, frx, fxp, ico, ini, jpg, lbt, lbx, mna, mnt, mnx, mpr, msk, pjm, pjt, pjx, prg, sct, scx, vca, vct, and vcx. Still takes forever and still cant compile.
>>
>
>Does disabling Auto-Protect before you open the project help? If so, here is the code I use to open a project. It should work on Windows 2000/XP:
>

>* Open project
>Wait "Loading Project..." window nowait
>Run /N7 net stop "Norton AntiVirus Auto Protect Service"	&& disable Norton Anti-Virus
>Modify Project MyProject Nowait
>Run /N7 net start "Norton AntiVirus Auto Protect Service"	&& enable Norton Anti-Virus
>Wait clear
>