The Command Prompt and PowerShell let you open Files or Folders. Learn how to open them using the command line in Windows 11/10.

Command Prompt and Windows PowerShell are also simple and built-in options covered in this post for this purpose. We have already seen how to open a file or folder using Command Prompt or PowerShell.

If you want to open an Elevated Command Prompt, which is one that runs with Administrator privileges, you can see the How to open a Windows 10 Elevated Command Prompt article instead.

If you want to execute a task from the command line in Windows, you first have to open Command Prompt. Here are 11 ways to do that.

Note: When you open a Command Prompt your working directory is your UserProfile folder. When you open an Elevated Command Prompt, your working directory with be C:\Windows\System32 instead.