MATLAB path linked to last user account for designated computer license installed on Windows 10 device

I have a designated computer license installed on a shared desktop allowing individual Windows account users to login and open MATLAB. Although MATLAB runs fine for each user I have noticed on startup it tries to find paths set by the previous user that results in the following warning message:

Is this an issue with the installation?

Answer 1

[Fangjun Jiang]

There is no problem with the installation.

No one should modify the build-in pathdef.m.

Instead, everyone should use a short-cut icon to start MATLAB. The startup folder can be specified at the shortcut icon. Utilize MATLAB preference and save customize folder to user path.

prefdir()

userpath()

[Tyler Gerhardson]

Thank you for the response.

I see the point of using userpath but with the current info it does not seem obvious how I get subfolders within the set userpath to be included in the search path. Is this possible?

[Fangjun Jiang]

Don't touch the built-in pathdef.m file, which specify the default MATLAB path. When a user need to modify the path, use savepath() to save the pathdef.m to a different folder. Only need to use savepath() command once. Next time, you can use pathtool() GUI to save the path file. It saves to the first found pathdef.m file.

Every time when MATLAB starts, it runs the first found pathdef.m file. That is when the preferdir() and startup folder matters. By specifying different startup folder or preference folder, each user can use a different pathdef.m file.

[Tyler Gerhardson]

This worked. Thank you for the detailed description.