The SNXM [1] was first installed at the European Synchrotron Research Facility in November 1998. It has been designed for water-window operation at a spatial resolution of about 10 nm and in its final form will comprise a Zone Plate focusing X-ray onto a cylindrical collimator 10–20 nm in diameter, made by drilling an AFM tip, with its exist aperture within a few nm of the specimen surface. The operation of the microscope may be loosely defined to be in near-field in analogy with the optical SNOM e.g. [2]. Point to point resolution equal to the collimator diameter is expected for specimens up to 200 nm thick. The collimator to surface separation is also monitored by the AFM scanning tip. Simultaneous signals are available from X-ray transmission and surface topography. A progress report is given limited by the current availability of high energy X-rays (3–6 Kev).