>ok my bad - its late in the day created the fpw file with screen = OFF and now nothing comes on screen ??? :'( any other tips ?

In your main program

Do FORM YourMainForm
READ EVENTS

In config.fpw

SCREEN = OFF

Properties for YourMainForm

.WINDOWTYPE = 0 && MODELESS
.SHOWWINDOW = 2 && AS TOP LEVEL FORM
.VISIBLE = .T.
.ENABLED = .T.

Also you might check to be sure that you are not returning .F. from LOAD or INIT events of the form. That will shortcircuit instantiation and exit. You should also have a ON SHUTDOWN procedure and CLEAR EVENTS somewhere to allow proper exit.

HTH