Vista - Accessing Windows application from Web application?

I have a Windows/Desktop Shell application developed in VB6. This
Shell application provides access to other applications that user can
run from within the Shell.

Now I want to convert the Shell application into a web application.
Can the web application call other Windows/Desktop applications
whether these are installed on either server or client side? As far as
I know about web based applications, it does not provide such
functionality due to security constraints. If that is true, what are
other alternates to this? One option may be to use Windows terminal
services etc…

Any comments on this would be highly appreciated.

Regards,

MFUK1