(1) In Windows, shortcuts can have parameters, so another possibility is that the shortcut has additional information that instructs the application to start in a specific way . . .
You can bypass the shortcut and launch the application directly by locating the executable file (.exe) and double-clicking it, which will start the application without any specific command-line parameters . . .
(2) Another possibility, which is more likely, is that the "SERVICE INSTALL FAILED" message is telling you something important, although in a cryptic way . . .
Notion 3 uses web-based licensing software that probably has some type of challenge-response mechanism, where every so often the licensing software essentially sends a tiny packet of information to a licensing server as a "challenge" and then based on the reply ("response") from the licensing server determines whether Notion 3 is properly licensed, is running in demo mode, or is unlicensed, and then acts accordingly . . .
Without getting too technical, a "service" typically is a special type of program that runs in the background and does a variety of things that in one way or another extend and enhance the operating system or provide additional features or whatever . . .
Whatever! This happens in Windows and Mac OS X, but it is done in different ways depending on the operating system . . .
Mac OS X is built on an UNIX foundation, and services typically are kept separate from what most Mac OS X users are aware, but if you know a bit about UNIX, you can use the Terminal application on the Mac to switch to the UNIX part of Mac OS X, where among other things if you are not very careful you have the ability to do things that even AppleCare technical support experts cannot remedy other than by telling you to flatten your hard drive and to do a clean install of everything, but UNIX is very powerful, and some folks have a bit of FUN tinkering with the UNIX stuff . . .
Windows has some UNIX influences, as well, but there are other ways in Windows to work with services, and there are very nice graphic user interface (GUI) applications for creating, controlling, and managing services in Windows . . .
The primary difference in philosophies or design patterns is that Apple computers generally have everything configured toward the goal of making it as easy as possible for the user, but this is not always the case with Windows, where for a variety of reasons some types of services are not automatically installed or activated, which for the most part actually makes a bit of sense, since there is logic to the idea of not doing something when it is unnecessary, but so what . . .
So what! As an example of something that was a complete and total surprise to me, several years ago I wanted to do some experiments with the Apache web server, so I started getting information about how it might be installed on the Mac, which one of my friends who does a lot of web stuff in Windows thought this was pretty funny, because as he explained and then quickly demonstrated, Mac OS X comes with the Apache web server installed, as is JAVA, PHP and SQLite (a SQL database), which basically made my idea a bit like going to McDonald's and asking if it is possible to get a Cheeseburger that has cheese . . .
I had no idea at the time . . . Summarizing, even though "SERVICE INSTALL FAILED" is a bit on the cryptic side, it indicates something, and it probably provides a clue to what is happening, which might be an account permissions type of thing, where even though you login with an Administrator account, the particular account might have additional security features activated that prevent certain types of services from being installed and provide no information or clues beyond "SERVICE INSTALL FAILED" . . .
I have not done anything on a Windows 7 machine so far, but there should be some special applications somewhere that make it possible for you to examine system logs and error messages, which will provide more information on the "SERVICE" that had problems or was prevented from being installed . . .
The best strategy is to call Notion Music technical support, really . . .
Really!