>JUSTPATH(FULLPATH(SYS(16,0))) if you can get at the source. Just chop off the file name and extension. You could use JUSTDRIVE(), but if there are any UNC references, there may not be a drive letter attached.

That works fine, except that I don't have foxtools available in this app (and app is still in vfp5)...there a number of different server installations in this case (and they can't all access a common point), and I'm trying to avoid installing foxtools for this...but maybe I'm out of luck with sys() functions, so I'll have to take one of your suggestions. I guess an API call is simpler than using foxtools, now that I think about it...

>
>If you need to inspect shortcuts, use the WSH Wscript.Shell object's CreateShortcut method to open up the existing shortcut. CreateShortcut returns a shortcut object; the object's TargetPath property will give you the base command line, and the WorkingDirectory property returns the Startup directory for the application.

Thanks, I'll check this out.