Detecting how a batch file was executed

Yes. Patrick Cuff's final example almost worked, but you need to add one extra escape, '^', to make it work in all cases. This works great for me:

set zero=%0
if [^%zero:~0,1%] == [^"] pause

However, if the name of the batch file contains a space, it'll be double quoted in either case, so this solution won't work.

I just ran a quick test and noticed the following, which may help you:

• When run from an open command prompt, the %0 variable does not have double quotes around the path. If the script resides in the current directory, the path isn't even given, just the batch file name.
• When run from explorer, the %0 variable is always enclosed in double quotes and includes the full path to the batch file.

This script will not pause if run from the command console, but will if double-clicked in Explorer:

@echo off
setlocal enableextensions

set SCRIPT=%0
set DQUOTE="

@echo do something...

@echo %SCRIPT:~0,1% | findstr /l %DQUOTE% > NUL
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 set PAUSE_ON_CLOSE=1

:EXIT
if defined PAUSE_ON_CLOSE pause

EDIT: There was also some weird behavior when running from Explorer that I can't explain. Originally, rather than

@echo %SCRIPT:~0,1% | findstr /l %DQUOTE% > NUL
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 set PAUSE_ON_CLOSE=1

I tried using just an if:

if %SCRIPT:0,1% == ^" set PAUSE_ON_CLOSE=1

This would work when running from an open command prompt, but when run from Explorer it would complain that the if statement wasn't correct.