Open lnk files

Hello hello! (Some might say "good evening!" but I hope you won't hold it against me for this deviation from the rules of greeting)

Here's my problem, to give a bit of context.

I have a set of files on a network. I can access them through Windows Explorer, but some of my friends prefer to do so from their favorite browser: it’s possible, they just need to connect to a server (Apache I think, though I don’t think that’s important) where everything is located. When it’s a folder, it opens in the browser; when it’s a file, it prompts them to download it to open it.

I now have two folders: one with restricted write permissions (I’ll call it P) and one without (folder Q). One of my files (an Excel file) must be editable by everyone (so it's in folder Q), but folder P contains other similar files - I would therefore like to group everything in folder P.

No problem, I create a shortcut. I test it in Windows Explorer, everything works, Excel opens my file as it should.

I try to access it from my favorite browser (since I need to test it). I download the file (extension .lnk, it’s a shortcut), I am prompted to open it with Excel, I accept, but Excel doesn’t recognize the format and doesn’t display much that’s usable afterward (especially not my file).

Well, .lnk files that don’t open with Excel don’t really shock me. I tried opening it with Windows Explorer (just in case), and it worked better: I got a Windows Explorer window with the file name in the location, but that's still not quite what I want.

Hence my first question: is there dedicated software for opening shortcuts? If so, where is it? (If not, how does Windows handle shortcut files? This isn’t entirely related to the problem, but I’m interested).

I found a workaround that works: save a shortcut to a folder (which would only contain my file) and open the shortcut to the folder using Windows Explorer. This bothers me for two reasons:

*I will have to explain to my friends that they need to select “open with”, then “browse” (the .lnk file that leads to a folder, Firefox doesn’t suggest a default program, nor even a list, which I find quite rude), go find the file “explorer.exe” in C\WINDOWS, and even though that’s not necessarily super complicated, it could be a bit long (especially since there are many of them). There’s always the solution of leaving a little tutorial in the same folder explaining all this, but I think I’d prefer to just leave a copy of the original file.

*Folder P contains other files; I don’t really want to create a new folder that would only contain one file; plus, I’d have to remind some of my other friends who go through the network that the file has moved a bit.

To summarize: I’m looking for a magic solution that would allow opening the shortcut file from the internet browser's download boxes, preferably without having to dig deeper than a list of recommended programs.

If such a solution doesn’t exist, information on how Windows handles shortcuts is still of interest to me.

The message is a bit long; I apologize to you (who have read to the end), and thank you for the attention you have graciously afforded me.

Sincerely,
Elinux

PS: I apologize for the rather unappetizing presentation of the message. I couldn't manage to insert line breaks, the html didn’t work, and I am aware that this makes your reading more arduous – it’s to your credit, after all, for taking the time to get to the end.