The executable for the preceding exercise needed a new version because it needed more logging, it being an unmanned batch process. In twenty other places it would run as a scheduled task, in its own folder, with its own .ini file where it would find the location of a config file it needs to read, and the connectstring and few other things, Then it would create a log of its own in the logs subfolder, run for 59 minutes, then quit. The task manager is set to run it every hour, so this was a way to recycle it (in case it runs for days and develops a memory leak - which it didn't in the last few years, but Justin Case is my friend).

This works fine in twenty places, for almost four years. The only problem that happened from time to time was that some cerberus would introduce some security measure (the account under which the task runs is all of a sudden forced to change password, forbidden to use cmd.exe and other nasty tricks). Doesn't work here.

Symptoms:
- the exe runs, is visible in Task Manager, but uses only 2,3M RAM - should be anywhere between 5 and 24, depending on the amount of data to process
- the log is not created anywhere, on any disk
- it doesn't connect to the database using the string in its ini file (which makes me guess it doesn't find the ini file in the first place)

The usual suspects off the list:
- the account under which it runs is not short on privileges, same happens when I run it under my own credentials
- it works perfectly when run from fExplorer and it creates its own log in logs subfolder
- it manages to find its ini file even if I run it from a shortcut off the desktop, because I made all internal paths relative to the exe - the ini file is expected to be in the same folder, and then the location of the config file is an UNC. Also works when the shortcut contains no path, so its current folder is c:\users\myself\desktop.
- the usual quirks about the "Start in" option in task scheduler - no quoutes around the string, no final backslash. Actually tried with no path at all, assuming it will find its pieces now with all these relative paths, no luck.