public oTimer oTimer = createobject( "testTimer" ) oTimer.Enabled = .t. define class testTimer as Timer interval = 500 function Timer ?? '.' endfunc enddefinerun it a poke around doing things in VFP you'll see times when the dots stop showing up. It used to happen anytime a menu was active it'd hold up the events. In VFP8 dropping a menu won't stop it, but opening the File Open dialog stops them. Once the dialog is closed you'll see a flurry of dots. Long running commands/SQL can stop them.