Re Jan: Yes, I did check that link, and have had to apply that hotfix on another PC in the past. Unfortunately it wasn't the problem here.
But, I did find my answer. I've been suspicious that my PC was infected with a virus. My Avira install wasn't detecting anything, so I loaded AVG instead. It found some malicious bug called "arking.exe" in my windows folder, which on reboot it deleted. Now Matlab launches fine!
Who knows what was going on, or why a virus would choose to terminate Matlab.exe, but at least the problem seems fixed.
Thanks!
