I have solved the mystery of the disappearing workspaces, though I would still consider it a bug! Workspaces will not load if they are saved with the project attached to a 'null' or non recognised toolchain. Personally I would expect either a warning on saving 'selected toolchain does not exist' , or similar, or it to complain when compilation/building of a project is attempted. However, the screen drawing problem and the slow response time of v8.40 performing any of the setup or compile options remains. Colin -- cdb, colin@btech-online.co.uk on 10/27/2009 Web presence: www.btech-online.co.uk Hosted by: www.1and1.co.uk/?k_id=7988359 -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist