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Alternative is easy, and if you can make php then you should have figured this out, just make an alias (for unix) or an batch file in widows that first calls your php and then calls maya thisway the mel file is re-done before maya is executed.
The startup mel could also call the php via a system command and then when its finished doing whatever its doing source your script in the same mel file.
Is there a way to use a mapped drive as my MAYA script directory? That would solve the not turned on problem. Maybe setting the environtvariable MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH to a local mapped networkdrive would solve the problem.
Probabaly, but you can allways source the scripts you need with another script file, thats located in your script folder!