Java SE (Java Platform, Standard Edition)

I recently put together an application that relied heavily on the Desktop.open( ) method and several other methods from the Desktop class. However, all of a sudden the Desktop.open() does not work. I believe I read some where that this was due to the ShellExecute function or dll or something like that.

However, since my app is targetted at the Windows platform I resorted to using windows Explorer to launch the system default applications for files using a the code below

public static void openFile(File file) {
  try {
    Runtime runtime = Runtime.getRuntime();
    runtime.exec( "explorer.exe \"" + file.getAbsolutePath() + "\"" );
  } catch(IOException) {
    ioe.printStackTrace();
    JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Could Not Open File Location: " + file.getAbsolutePath());
  }
}

The code works as expected, but my problem is that I am loosing cross-platform functionality.

Can any point my to solution to this Desktop.open( ) problem, or probably add the my list platform dependent launch procedures so at least the code works on Windows,Linux and Mac.

ICE