Hey Beth - one other tool that may help you. Check out http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c039a798-c57a-419e-acbc-2a332cb7f959&DisplayLang=en - it's a lightweight admin tool for MSDE.

yag

>hi, Alex and Kirk
>
> Yes, I know I need to get away from the sa account for the database, but I am so new at the MSDE stuff, that I do not know how to setup any other account. And this database is only on my vfp8 development computer at the moment. I am just trying to connect and get info back at the moment. Once I have the connection down. Oh, I need to test the different ways to connect, ODBC, ADO and XML. I will be changing the code to get the userid and password from the client area.
> Most of the data I need to get from these connections is for reporting basis. And my fellow programmer here thinks it is going to be very slow because of the connection being ODBC instead of native vfp. Any suggestions on which connection would be the fastest?
>
>Thanks for all the advise.
>Beth