If I recall correctly, the "Start" program was only in Windows 9x versions.
I don't think it was ever in NT (including XP) versions. The "file not
found" error is not referring to the file named in Target, but rather the
"Start" program.


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com
(email address is on the web site)


"Andrew Hall NZ" wrote in message
...
I want to be able to open some pdf and htm files from Outlook and from
xcel.
I am using

Sub testsh()
Dim target As String
target = "C:/vba/copy7.htm"
Shell "Start " & target
End Sub

This fails with "file not found"

Given that I have successfully opened the file to read the text from excel
and also that it runs fine from cmd.exe, I know the path is right. Is
there
some security setting or reference that is missing? This problem occurs
regardless of the file I attempt to target. I am running XP in Classic
mode.

TIA

Andrew