It should be a matter of just removing the wscript part of the shortcut and changing the command to the .bat file
If I get a chance I’ll relook at alternative options for launch it. Unless one else gets to it first
ok. I'll share that so it at least pops up as an option for anyone searching.
turns out over on the discourse post that the issue with this user was a 'lingering' mcafee and avast antivirus on his machine. he thought he had the built in windows defender as the only av running, and that wasn't the case. 'deleted' (uninstalled? not clear) mcaffee and suddenly vbs's run again.
so, yeah, this was def user machine side error. but googling on here has turned up a few help list and stackoverflow posts about people unable to run the vbs file for one reason or another (that shouldn't be able to happen, but it's windows...)