Hi Gary's Student,

Thanks for your reply. This isn't working for me either, but maybe I
can see what's happening now (although I don't know why). The cmd
window flashes opens and immediately closes without running the file.
I think this was happening with my original routine, just too fast to
see. I tried this with Excel 97 as well (same machine), with the same
results. I'm starting to wonder if it might be a registry problem.
Anu other suggestions?

regards,

DaveU



On May 15, 7:21*pm, Gary''s Student
wrote:
Hi Dave:

Shell is usually not useful to start a file without specfying the app. *But
rather than using the ShellExecute API, you can still use Shell as in this
example:

Sub Macrosh()
x = Shell("cmd.exe /c C:\start.lnk", 1)
End SuB

This will start an app/file associated with the shortcut on C: folder.

That is because cmd.exe is smart enough to:
1. look at the shortcut
2. find the target file
3. pick the correct app
4. open the file
--
Gary''s Student - gsnu2007h