I don't have LabVIEW 8.x, so I can't say how this would work with the 8.x application builder, but before that you could just build an application without specifying any top level VI.
In any case, all you really need to do to make this work is write a small VI which will accept a command line argument of the path to your VI (see
the example finder (Help>>Find Examples) for an example of how to use these) and then does an Open VI Reference followed by a Run VI method. You might also need to set its FP to be open, but that's about it really.
Just be aware that you need to enable support for command line arguments when you build the application.
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