Odd that it wouldn't work while in the same directory.
No flags are passed by default, so doing an "Open" just means "Run the application" without any other information. Some programs do pass flags, in a way, as their default behaviour may vary depending on your privileges. It isn't very common, though.
I know this shouldnt be a problem with dom3 right round the corner but whenever i start up dominions i have a problem. Recently got windows XP and has happened since i installed it, dom2 loads slowly and once its up, while the mouse works fine, i cant do anything. Can select network/new game ect and the background dosnt move.
As ive said it isnt a big problem with dom3 around the corner but i dont want to have to drop out of my current mp games.
Try upgrading your graphics driver to the one supplied by your video card manufacturer. This is necessary to get decent OpenGl support for ATI and Nvidia.