As a general note, it's best to ask one question per thread, as it is very difficult to have parallel conversations about multiple questions in a single thread.
I can't answer a, so let's move on to b, and we can move on to the other questions once we're done with this one:
Have a look at the Set command's LISTERCMD argument, which can do some related things.
For example:
Set LISTERCMD=MinimizeAll