CD is a self contained program, therefore you can place it anywhere you wish :D

I guess I should ask a lot more questions here, instead of one at a time.

Ok, there is a chance that there is what I call the insidious exe.
This is where an exe file actually starts an actual exe in a different location.
MS Office and ADOBE Programs are infamous for this tactic, supposedly helps avoid pirating or hacking.
an exe to exe start if you will instead of a shortcut to the exe in the program file. In Vista the exe startup will redirect to the real exe in the AppData file (which is a hidden file of course) in User folder.

Where is Circle dock redirecting to?
Where have you directed circle dock to?
And have you manually tried to enter the correct address as you know it into the CD shorcut?

Is Halo the only shortcut that this happening to?

Now you may want to try to start the CD as an Administrative acess program.
Go to Circledock.EXE, right click, and run as administrator from the context menu.

Also go to you halo.exe, and check the properties.
See if this is forwarded to another exe file in a different area, that may very well be the real startup exe for Halo.

Let me know.

I will have to take off soon, but I will not abandon you to your problem.
I want the answer(s) as well.

So if I drop off for a while you will know why.
Just got a call from the office and the server is acting up, so I will have to go in to work in a few moments.

You may need to create an exception in Avira for CD.
Also you may bring up CD and attempt to run a Shortcut.
Once this is done, bring up the Task Manager, and look under Process"
Look for the program you have attempted to start and see if it is using System resources to start, but is hung.
Quick way to find the resources that are being used is to click on the "CPU" in the process window, but it can be hard to look at.

One other thing here.
If you close CD and open it, do you still have your shortcuts, or do they disappear?
Also look for if your shortcut Icons turn to blue "?" marks