Windows10 cmd.exe default directory different to Windows7

I am seeing a difference in behaviour on the default directory when you execute cmd.exe when you are already inside a shell between Win7 and Win10.

Windows 7:

C:\projects\test>ver

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
     
C:\projects\test>cmd.exe
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.
     
C:\projects\test>exit
     
C:\projects\test>

Windows 10:

C:\projects\test>ver
 
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18363.1316]
 
C:\projects\test>cmd.exe
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18363.1316]
(c) 2019 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 
C:\Users\john>exit
 
C:\projects\test>

The problem I am facing is that, this difference in behaviour is causing some 3rd-party scripts to fail, as it assumed that when cmd.exe is executed, it was running in whatever was the default directory instead of the user's home directory or C:\Users\xxxx

For example:

1. yarn install when the directory contains a package.json that has a dependency on phantomjs-prebuilt. It ends up looking for install.js in C:\Users\xxxx instead of in the node_modules\karma-phantomjs-launcher\node_modules\phantomjs_prebuilt directory.

2. Maven's maven-javadoc-plugin when executing the jar goal dynamically creates a javadoc.bat and that BAT file specifically calls cmd.exe to execute javadoc. Essentially, the javadoc execution from the maven build fails in Windows10 due to this behaviour.

Found out the reason. There is a registry setting at the place I work that is applied corporate-wide to all Windows10 devices.

An Autorun key in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor that changes the directory to the user's home directory.

Delete this key and the behaviour is then consistent.