Terry,

>COM+ - what is that? WHat kind of problems is that supposed to solve. Wasn't it "self-registration". All these geeky names - what was the point! These things were ALL big positives - all the marqui speakers lauded them as a break through.

COM+, also known as Component Services, previously known in earlier versions as Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), provides a host of features to manage instances of COM DLLs, including allowing them to be called via DCOM from other computers (normally that can be done only with COM EXEs), enabling Queued Components, Loosely-Coupled Events, and more.

Just the fact that it gives you separate threads for your COM MTDLLs is enough to warrant its use with VFP MTDLLs. COM+ also hosts some of the subsystems used by IIS and ASP and other OS functions.

>Now that all the marqui super geeks received their .NET marching orders from the buffet rooms in Redmond - all of this stuff - like VFP MTDLL and COM+ - are somehow meaningless blunders of a wacky MS strategy in the days of yore!

VFP MTDLLs and COM+ are not meaningless blunders. They have their uses and they do them very well, which will be clearer once you understand the concepts and work with them a bit.