Well you learn something new every day! I just discovered that if the first parameter to the windows “start” command is quoted, then it assumes that is the title of the Window.
This can be particularly annoying if the path to the executable you are trying to start contains spaces e.g. “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\winword.exe” so you are forced to quote it.
The solution is to add an empty string (or a genuine window title) before the executable:
start “” “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\winword.exe”
Don’t get me started on how **crappy** and inconsistent this behaviour is 🙂
Spaces in directory/file names are an abomination!