We have a Winner! (Almost).
So I plugged in my original test values using a local drive. Worked perfectly.
I then plugged in my actual working values - instead of
cd "C:\test"
I put it to
cd "Z:\test"
Z being a shared drive on the domain that is mapped to the local machine.
When I do that, the batch file defaults to the directory where the batch file is stored, and opens everything in that directory (including the batch file itself, which opens everything + itself, which creates a loop that ends up opening dozens of windows worth of the same thing).
I have verified that I am connected and authenticated to the mapped drive.
In the end, this .bat is only functional if it is able to grab its items from a mapped network drive.
Any ideas? I feel like I'm on the cusp of success.\
Thanks in advance.
You can also do it without creating a content file (and without waiting) like this:
cd "C:\test"
for /f "tokens=*" %%a in ('dir /a-d /b') do start "" "%%a"