Your post did the trick. I had been opening the default page through desktop explorer. In that mode IE was not allowing localhost script writes. I guess, since the static page was not requesting write permisssions, it was allowed.

So - as i munged your response, the obvious finally occured to me - I needed to open the "default" page as a localhost client and then, with some fanfare, viola - the little com that couldn't, could!

The com is still exe - but after the fist cache - it zips (surprisingly). I am amazed that javascript functions [as oppesed to form actions] can post cgi requests.

I learned 2 (err 3) new things these past few days:
1) Client Frame/Form object attributes can be set through a cgi response. Better than returning a new page - persistant client states (those little hidden inputs) are maintained.
2) That a cgi request may be targeted (assigned a frame) through a javascript function.
3) And finally - open the default htm through localhost when testing cgi com (thanks).