So its my understanding a program shortcut is anything with a .lpl extension yes?  I placed one on the desktop and its not going to the proper designated fence.

I finally ascertained this was happening due to the Downloads rule which includes the exe extension and i point to a different fence. its taking the shortcut.lpl that points to an exe (like all program shortcuts would) and parsing it as an exe and putting it in the wrong fence.

pretty big issue id say. 

can disable the downloads rule and it works.  or remove exe from the downloads rule and it works.  Not ideal considering you (like i) may want ACTUAL exe's to be lumped in a different pile and evidently exe and shortcuts are butting heads.