When trying to execute a symbolic link which points to an exe file (on Windows 7), the "Open with" windows appears. When renaming it to a ".exe" file, it says "The specified path does not exist. Check the path, and then try again.". Symlinks to other destinations seem to work fine.

I know that because hard links are a reference to the file's inode, they do not have this issue. But because of their disadvantages (like replacing "target file" not possible), I avoid hard links. And Windows shortcuts (lnk files) aren't filesystem links. Although I haven't had any trouble with them yet, I'd rather avoid them as well.

So is there any way to execute a symlink?