working through a user issue on startup trouble that is tied to an (as yet unsolved) inability to execute vbs scripts[1][2], a comment was made "
why do you need VBS for something as simple as setting path and environment variables and starting a program? A simple batch script will do it and is guaranteed to work. If you would like to avoid a black CMD window see this post [3]"
I came across bug #41074 [4] that i think resulted in shifting from a .bat to .vbs file and seems to identify (1) no terminal window hanging around while the gui is up, (2) starting cli version in a way that still let you produce qt graphics, (3) producing the first time welcome dialog if needed. i seem to recall there being something else but it escapes me, I don't know if it made any other setup steps easier.
thanks to the history of windoze security issues, using a vbs may be problematic for some users, with the usual result of "octave doesn't start". Were there other reasons for shifting to the .vbs that I'm missing above? Is there a workaround for someone who just can't run a vbs file for some reason? I hate to suggest reverting to the 'include .bat as a backup' model, but is that the only method that would work for them?