Thanks John. Your comments are very helpful.

My question, though, is not whether in VB I can write apps and compile them into EXEs; the question is whether I can write apps and NOT compile them into EXEs. My currrent VFP installation is a mixture of EXE that runs locally AND shared apps on the server that are updated frequently. I want to know if I can continue to do that. If the answer is: No, everything in VB must be compiled into an EXE, then it won't help me and I'll stick with VFP.

Explained another way: in the project manager, I work with forms and other items and then compile them into a VFP app. This is not an EXE; it's an app that must be run from FoxPro, but it can be run from an EXE created in FoxPro. The reason I work this way is so (1) I can work on a form while users are running that form, (2) I never have to load new software on the client machines, and (3) users don't have to run a big EXE over the network. What I want to do in VB is something analogous to the VFP compiled app (not the compiled EXE).

Sorry if I'm not explaining this well.