Once you add a user to the scenario, the likelihood of problems goes up. From what you describe, I would not touch it and leave it on a dedicated machine.

>Hi,
>Since I have no testing facilities here, I wonder if some light can be shed on this:
>
>I have created an interrupt driven VFP program, using MSCOMM.
>It receives data from a blood analyzing machine at a doctor's office.
>Communication is at 9600 baud, in a burst of a few hundred characters,
>with long intervals between each sample.
>
>The program has been running on a dedicated, networked pc for a few years now, but I have been thinking about the possibility of using a shared machine.
>
>At present, the program is running continously in an open window. Will the program work as normal even in the minimized state? The shared machine is being used by the office staff for patient record keeping. This means keyboard input, disk read/write operations, and printing.
>
>While the program performs validation of received data, it does not request retransmission, it just flags the erroneous record.
>
>I am therefore concerned with the possibility of lost data. How likely is that to happen? Or may I safely assume that nothing bad will happen?
>
>I have no access to the installation before next week, so I am unable to check details, but since I find no attempts in my old code at incorporating any ACK/NAK routine into my program, that the blood analyzing machine probably does not support requests for retransmission. (I think it was a
>German machine, MICRO CRP or something)
>
>Rolf