You want to execute, not open the program. I can't help you on that one if you're trying to do it in a DOS program. If you can use the windows API, look at ShellExecute and ShellExecuteEx .
And if you have computers with compilers at school (read CS lab), and they have VC++, and they have fortress or some other lock out program, I have the source for a very interesting, um, utillity that I wrote, that can, um, supliment the run box by convincing windows that text files are really executable without renaming them, yeah. (In other words, this source turns VC on a computer into a nice way to run WinAmp and such on computers that wouldn't normally allow it)