hmm -conf parsing should still work. This what frontends do as well.
did you try without quotes ?

Yep tried it as well.

Even tried putting my config in the standard location where dosbox looks.

can you look at the properties of the shortcut that doesn't work and take a screenshot ?
maybe you accidently added it to the wrong field

Can do, but I even tried it from the start - execute location, without using a shortcut. So I guess the problem lies not in the behavior of the shortcut?

I just tried the following:

opened a regulard cmd.exe screen, and went into the dosbox dir, gave this command:

C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.73>dosbox.exe -conf c:\configs\zanzi2.conf

still same problem.
So I guess it's dosbox who isn't taking any flags?

1qbix@laptop:/tmp$ echo test >test.conf
2qbix@laptop:/tmp$ dosbox73 -conf test.conf 
3DOSBox version 0.73
4Copyright 2002-2009 DOSBox Team, published under GNU GPL.
5---
6CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file test.conf

It really seems to work fine

tried \\ instead of \ ?
the c:\configs\zanzi.conf does exist right (on your host, not while in dosbox)

Tried and double checked,

I can open a teamviewer session if you want, but I guess you'll experience the same problem.

Let's wait until tries the same thing as you. anyway. please make a screenshot of the shortcut, although it should have worked from the cmd.exe and I didn't spot an error there.

OMG OMG OMG

I think I found the problem
and what a newbie mistake :'(

extensions were hidden so I didn't have .conf files but .conf.txt files.

This is why I hate windows :p

I'll give it a try, but guess this will solve my issues!!! Thanks for you help and sorry for the waste of time.

*Slaps the forehead*

It works ...
gosh I feel stupid now :'(