Microsoft officially ended all support for Visual FoxPro in January 2015. Businesses that built systems on FoxPro are not running legacy software — they're running unsupported software on a dead platform, and the risks are compounding every year.

The FoxPro problem

FoxPro and Visual FoxPro were workhorses. They powered tens of thousands of business applications: inventory management, manufacturing workflows, distribution systems, point-of-sale, job costing, agricultural management. The databases were fast, the language was approachable, and the resulting applications were often tightly fitted to specific business needs.

That’s also the problem. The systems are so specific, so customised to the way a particular business operates, that replacing them requires understanding them first. And understanding them is hard when:

• The original developers are gone
• The documentation was never written
• The business rules exist only inside the application
• Nobody has looked at the code in years

Microsoft’s end-of-support decision didn’t remove FoxPro from Windows — not immediately. But with each major Windows release, compatibility narrows. 64-bit Windows doesn’t run FoxPro natively. The applications require 32-bit compatibility layers that may not persist indefinitely.

What I do

I document your FoxPro system and produce everything you need to plan a modernization — whether that means rebuilding the application, migrating the data to a modern database, or understanding the system well enough to make informed decisions.

• FoxPro database extraction — .DBF files to modern SQL or structured formats
• Application logic documentation — what the system does and why
• Business rule identification — pricing logic, workflow rules, calculations
• Data quality and migration feasibility assessment
• Modern platform options and rebuild estimates
• Phased migration plan prioritised by operational risk

Common scenarios

Manufacturing and distribution. A FoxPro-based stock management or production tracking system is embedded in daily operations. Moving off it means disrupting the business, but staying on it means accumulating risk. I help you understand both sides of that equation.

Agricultural and rural business. Many farming, livestock, and rural supply businesses built on FoxPro in the 1990s and 2000s. These systems often contain years of important operational data — paddock records, herd histories, yield data — that would be difficult or impossible to recreate.

Accounting and job costing. Bespoke FoxPro systems built to meet industry-specific accounting or job costing requirements, often by consultants who are no longer available.

What I need

• The FoxPro application (running or as files)
• The database files (.DBF, .FPT, .CDX files)
• A description of what the system does and what you need to achieve

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