>I have a situation where a client likes to set his shortcuts to run as maximized. However, we have an app that shows a top level form to login before _screen is shown. I can force the form to the right size but with the shortcut set to run as max, it flashes just before it resizes. How can I get control of a top level form in this scenario before the OS tries to maximize it?
>(Btw, setting visible .F. in load() or anywhere else does not work.)

You'd need to have a CONFIG.FPW with SCREEN=OFF compiled into your .EXE. That gives you full control of your code to set the size of things (non-visibly) before you actually "turn it on" (make visible).