>I know that I can save an ADO recordset to an XML file and then use XMLTOCURSOR() but is there a better/faster way to convert an ADO recordset to a cursor?

Tom,
Practically you can't convert all ADO recordsets into a VFP cursor. For those convertible IMHO directly connecting to source with ODBC (if applicable) and using SQLExec() is better than utilities I know of.
Cetin