NTVDM is a sort of native(uses native apis) CLI(yet, it displays a console window) appication. It's used to run the Virtual DOS machine, so basically emulating legacy DOS applications ( non-PE ). It's unusual to run it from the commandline, but possible. For tweaking settings check the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WOW key, and especially the wowcmdline value. For the listing of documented switches, see:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/102986
Defines the commmand line that runs when an MS-DOS-based application runs
under Windows NT. This command line continues to run until the related
application is closed. The following switches can be included:
Switch Meaning
----------------
-a Specifies a command to pass to the VDM
-f Specifies the directory to find NTVDM.EXE
-m Hides the VDM console window
-w Specifies the WOW VDN
Default: %SystemRoot%\system32\ntvdm -f%SystemRoot%\system32 -a