>The system requirements for VFP9 indicate a need for XP or Win2K. Is this for the development environment only or is XP need for the runtime environment. I am thinking of backwards compatibility for those running my application.

From VFP9 Readme:

Operating System:
Developing applications with Visual FoxPro 9.0 is only supported on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and later, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.
You can create and distribute run-time applications for Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or later, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.