>>>How run an application (say EXE file) without going into Windows Desktop, if possible, close it in the same way? This is really needed when running POS file, where: PC workstations serves as Cash Register, and it is awkward for the cashiers to have windows desktop activated.
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>>As I said in my email, there are several ways to do this. I'm investigating how to directly run a link file. Haven't had much success, but I'm going to keep at it.
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>It's me again - why not copy the .lnk in Start Up directory?

Honestly, I've never tried that approach, so I can't say from first hand experience that it will work (it should). I'm trying to figure out (without using the DDE interface (which I haven't tried on the desktop) how to extract the information from the link. Just passing it to ShellExecute() doesn't work. One piece of behavior that I've noticed is that GETFILE('lnk') doesn't return the name of the link file, but rather the executable or file related to the link. So it seems obvious that there's a way to do it.