Windows batch file starting directory when 'run as admin'

Question

I have a batch file which is in a directory and must be run from there as well because it updates files within this directory.
This works perfectly fine, except when t

Answer 1

You can CD directly from the file name by adding the parent (not tested in windows 8.x, but has worked "forever" as far as I can remember).

CD %FILENAME%\..

and CD will change drives as well using /D, which is shown above but not explicitly mentioned so might be missed. CD /D %FILENAME%\..

(FOR /? IF /? SET /? CALL /? GOTO /? all provide highly useful reading if you use cmd.exe, I reread them once in a while.)

Answer 2

A working solution here:

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/79849-run-administrator-changes-default-directory.html

FOR /F %%I IN ("%0") DO SET BATDIR=%%~dpI

ECHO The batch file is located in directory %BATDIR%

Answer 3

This should solve your problem by setting the working directory for the batch file back to the current directory:

Include these two lines at the top of your .bat script:

@setlocal enableextensions
@cd /d "%~dp0"

Found at: http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/119828/Running-a-bat-file-as-administrator-Correcting-cur

Answer 4

Better than cd is pushd which will

• change drive letter if starting from D:\...
• assign a drive letter if on a UNC network path

So pushd %~dp0 is good.

Good practice is then to call popd when done.

Answer 5

@setlocal enableextensions

@cd /d "%~dp0"

Answer 6

To fix this problem, include these two lines at the top of your .bat script:

@setlocal enableextensions
@cd /d "%~dp0"