Matlab ignores the initial working folder setting

New installation of MatLab 2023a on a Windows 10 computer with a previous release installed. It opens to the initial working folder of the binary location of MatLab. We changed it to a Matlab folder inside Documents. The General Preferences remembers this choice and even changes it initially, but restart Matlab and it's back to the binary locaion of Matlab, but the General Preferences setting is correct, what we set it to.

[Catalytic]

And your question is why deos this happen?

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Create a startup.m file and put it in a folder that is at the top of your path. You can then have it cd to whatever folder location you want upon startup. Like

In startup.m

cd('c:\Users\Maurice\Document\MATLAB\my projects')

Also check out userpath

help userpath

 USERPATH User environment path.
    USERPATH returns a user-specific folder that MATLAB adds to the search path
    at startup, specified as a character vector.
 
    The default userpath is platform-specific:
      Windows: user's "Documents" folder appended with "MATLAB"
      Mac:     user's "Documents" folder ($home/Documents) appended with "MATLAB"
      Linux:   user's $home folder appended by "Documents" and "MATLAB"
               (if there is no $home/Documents directory, userpath will not be set)
 
    USERPATH(path) set the current value of userpath to the folder passed in.
    It updates the current MATLAB path, and this new userpath will persist
    across MATLAB sessions. 
 
    USERPATH('reset') resets the userpath to the default. It updates the current
    MATLAB path, and this new userpath will persist across MATLAB sessions. 
 
    USERPATH('clear') removes the userpath. It updates the current MATLAB path,
    and this new userpath will persist across MATLAB sessions.  
 
    Note that additional folders can be added to the top of the search path upon
    startup by specifying the path for the folders via the MATLABPATH environment
    variable.
 
    On Mac and Linux, if the directory $home/matlab exists, it will also be
    added to the search path after any folders specified via the MATLABPATH
    environment variable regardless of whether the MATLABPATH environment
    variable is set. (This is done for compatibility with earlier releases.)
 
    See also PATHDEF.

    Documentation for userpath
       doc userpath