>George,
>
>You probably already know this, but I noticed this speed phenomena years ago with queries. At the time it was explained to me (here on the UT) that it had to do with the slight pauses the system makes to accept user input (checking for an ESC or something). Any input (like moving the mouse) cancels the wait, like with a WAIT WINDOW. At the time I got a more accurate, technical explaination, but I didn't understand it at the time and don't remember it.

Dan,

If I had to make a SWAG, I'd say that it's due to the message processing sequence. Every time the mouse moves, Windows sends a message to the window that currently has the mouse over it. This interrupts the normal sequence of the preemptive multi-tasking environment, giving the window receiving the message additional time to process it.