> (Why I'm not sure, but they use some special kind
> of shortcut that's not found anywhere else)

They use Windows Installer shortcuts.

Why? Probably because they can. <shrug>

When you open the properties page of Microsoft Office shortcut, you will
find only program title, not the actual program EXE, in the Target textbox.
Also the Find Target button and Change Icon button are all disabled (grayed
out).
----

<quote>
These are windows Installer's shortcuts. Windows Installer looks after
starting the application, usually after checking that critical
files/registry settings are in place (if not it starts a repair). Therefore
the target isn't your application. EG Word 2000 is
C:\WINDOWS\Installer\{00000409-78E1-11D2-B60F-006097C998E7}\wordicon.exe
(find targets work just greyed out as irrelevant)
<quote>
from David Candy
http://groups.google.com/group/micro...7ce30e7b765b35

Word 2002 is
C:\WINDOWS\Installer\{901B0409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0050048383C9}\wordicon.exe

<quote>
This behavior occurs because the shortcuts that are installed by Office 2000
do not point directly to the .exe file for the program. Instead, they go to
Windows Installer, which then resolves the path of the shortcut.
<quote>
from...
Office 2000 Shortcuts Do Not Have the "Pin to Start Menu" Command
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283293

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In news:8462DB8E-0CA6-4787-8079-BEC5EEB7C41F@microsoft.com,
Ian <Ian@discussions.microsoft.com> hunted and pecked:
> A possible factor here is that recent versions of Word, Excel etc. don't
> use standard shortcuts. (Why I'm not sure, but they use some special kind
> of shortcut that's not found anywhere else)
>
> You can try creating a standard shorcut to winword.exe etc. in the Progam
> Files folder, and see if that works. In principle it should, as all
> dropping a file does is to execute "program.exe %1" where %1 is the
> file's full pathname.