>>>I have not had vfp 8 for very long time but I noticed that my compiled .exe's (Win 32 executable /COM server (exe)) run on newly installed systems(XP) without benefit of installshield of VFP runtime files. Can't find alot of reference documentaion on this. Can someone point me to an article or clue me in?
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>>Sounds like something else had already installed the runtimes on that system.
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>so what do I use in place of the setup wizard which is no longer?

Installshield. I don't understand the question. The wizard is no more, not since VFP6.

If your app runs on that system, and you did not do an Installshield installation, then someone else either did an installation, or manually copied the runtimes and registered them. Or if everything is just copied into the application folder, it might run OK. Don't know how well that would work for a .DLL, though.