Calling Batch File People

Command Prompt: should open to your User Profile
(%UserProfile%)

Command Prompt (Admin): should open to C:\Windows\system32

Your Command screen shot indicates by the prompt that your command opens to C:\Windows
That is not normal.

How are you launching Command Prompt?
There are a number of different ways (Run dialog, Quick Access Toolbar ... aka X-menu, from search results, from File Explorer blue FILE menu).

Try Winkey +X
Select Command Prompt
enter the following command

set

post a screen shot of the output
then you can exit Command

---

The easiest thing to do is what cerebus suggested, fully qualify the source and destination:

cereberus said:

Well I see the xcopy command syntax looks all wrong for starters. it should look something like

xcopy C:\sourceFolder E:\targetFolder /D /E /C /R /H /I /K /Y

You could also pass the targetFolder as a parameter

batFileCopy.bat E:\targetFolder

You have to change the batch file to use the passed parameter

xcopy C:\sourceFolder %1 /D /E /C /R /H /I /K /Y

You would need to test that a parameter was passed

noParm decision > prompt for targetFolder
noParm decision > use a predefined default

You also might want to test that the targetFolder exists

noExist decision > offer to create it
noExist decision > error msg and exit

iamjim said:

Here's another of several oddities that came with 10. The address (path?) bar at the top gives a network address rather than a local address. I don't know how to fix that or several others either.

I just created a simple batch file that displays the current dir ('echo %cd%' command). Placed that file on a non-mapped network share ('\\FILES\Storage' in my case) and run it from there. I got this

'\\FILES\Storage'
CMD.EXE was started with the above path as the current directory.
UNC paths are not supported. Defaulting to Windows directory.
C:\Windows

The first part is a warning that CMD.EXE gave me when I started the batch file. The last bit - C:\Windows - is the output of 'echo %cd%' command.

I.e. when the current dir is specified by an UNC path, then the batch shell simply defaults to C:\Windows as the current dir. Apparently this is exactly what happens in your case.

There could be something else at work here (which is hard to figure out without knowing more about your setup), but the fact that you see "network" address as the path means that the current location will be specified by an UNC path. The rest follows.

Slartybart said:

Command Prompt: should open to your User Profile
(%UserProfile%)
Command Prompt (Admin): should open to C:\Windows\system32

Both do what they're supposed to do.

Try Winkey +X
Select Command Prompt
enter the following command

set

post a screen shot of the output

That was a lot of trouble. So, I sure hope it leads somewhere.

The image is large so I'm linking to it