pdflatex no longer works from the command line...

After an unsuccessful run, the last text I saw was:

Package ifplatform Warning:
>
>     shell escape is disabled, so I can only detect \ifwindows.
>
>
>
> )
> (C:\Users\hsmyers\AppData\Roaming\MiKTeX\2.9\tex\latex\xstring\xstring.sty
>
> (C:\Users\hsmyers\AppData\Roaming\MiKTeX\2.9\tex\generic\xstring\xstring.tex))
> (C:\Users\hsmyers\AppData\Roaming\MiKTeX\2.9\tex\latex\framed\framed.sty))
>
>
>
> ! Package minted Error: You must invoke LaTeX with the -shell-escape flag.
>
>
>
> See the minted package documentation for explanation.
>
> Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
>
>  ...
>

 I modified my pdflatex.ini file using initexmf
--edit-config-file=miktex\config\pdflatex.ini and added shell-escape to it
but when I ran pdflatex again I got:

 > pdflatex fn.tex
>
> Sorry, but pdflatex did not succeed.
>
> You may want to visit the MiKTeX project page, if you need help.


This now happens no matter how I run pdflatex from the command line. It
works fine from TeX apps like WinEdt and TeXworks,

This under Win7 Pro with MiKTeX 2.9

Current contents of my pdflatex.ini file:

main_memory=2000000
> EnableWrite18=p
> extra-mem-bot=10000000
> stack-size=20000
> shell-escape


The shell-escape line was added after the failed run. BTW, given the
compiler message, I 'x'-ed out of the paused run of pdflatex and am not
sure how that qualifies as a failure but am hardly in a position to argue.

So. How do I revive pdflatex and is my pdflatex.ini file correct?

--hsm
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