>I am trying to use WINAPI shellexec function to execute
>SHORTCUT (.lnk files ), but does not work.
>
>Any application with .exe extension works fine.
>e.g. notepad.exe, wordpad.exe
>
>Even urls works fine.
>e.g. "ftp:\\vsnl.com" works fine.
>
>Also note that the SHORTCUTS work when we manually
>type in [ WINDOWS95 -> START-> RUN ] option.

You should not call them by simply stating the file name, you should call "start whatever.lnk" instead.