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Windows equivalent of the Mac OS X “open” command

Answer 1

+7 A:

The closest thing available is start.

Charles Duffy 2009-02-01 18:14:33

For me "start <filename>" just opens up a new instance of the command prompt.

Thomas Owens 2009-02-01 18:17:52

@Thomas Owens: That is the default behavior in NT-family Windows (the ones with the CMD.EXE shell). In the Win95 family, START works just as @Charles Duffy mentioned, but on NT you would say 'start "" filename' (note the double quotes to give an empty name to the command window).

crosstalk 2009-02-01 18:45:56

Answer 2

+4 A:

Just typing the file name into a console window will open the file in Windows. I tried several formats - .doc opened with OpenOffice, .mp3 opened with Windows Media Player, and .txt opened with Wordpad. This is the same behavior I experience when double clicking on the files.

Thomas Owens 2009-02-01 18:15:50

I don't think this works in Win95 family (because it doesn't work in DOS, and the Win95 console window is basically DOS plus the ability to run Win32 console programs).

crosstalk 2009-02-01 18:47:05

Answer 3

+1 A:

I use to write

explorer.exe <file>

epatel 2009-02-01 18:41:12

Answer 4

A:

All three of these answers are correct, so I gave the accepted answer to the earliest submitted. Thanks for the help everyone.

jcnnghm 2009-02-01 18:50:18

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Windows equivalent of the Mac OS X “open” command

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