Can I add a Windows Explorer context menu option to start command prompt in the selected directory?

Question

When browsing in Windows Explorer, sometimes I want to start a command prompt "here", e.g. with the current browsed folder as the current directory.

For example, when I am browsing "D:\Foo\Bar\Bar1", I want to open the command prompt with current dir pointing to this directory. Normally what I do is

1. Copy the current folder path from Windows explorer's address bar
2. Open cmd via Start Menu > Run
3. Type D: (because I have to change drive, the default is C:)
4. Type "cd " and then paste the folder path that I copied earlier

I do it quite often in my daily work, and I think by adding a context menu I will improve my efficiency (and also having to do the above repeatedly can be kind of annoying). I imagine I can just Right-Click > Start cmd here and then I will have a command prompt already in D:\Foo\Bar\Bar1

Is this possible?

Solution 1

1. Start / Run / regedit

2. Navigate to the following keys in turn:

   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\cmd
   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd
   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\cmd
   

3. Under each in the right pane you'll see a REG_SZ string value called Extended. Just rename this to something else (in case you want to easily undo the change) or delete it (just that value):

   

4. Now you can simply right-click a drive or directory and have the Command Prompt option show up without having to press Shift.

Solution 2

Right-click on the folder itself with Shift held down, and a new context item should appear named Open command window here.

This trick also works if you do it in the empty space of a folder.

Solution 3

Just type "cmd" in Windows Explorer's address bar.

Solution 4

A fast alternative on Windows 10 is to hit Alt, D, E in succession and the command prompt will open on the current open Explorer path. Sorry for the german, but you get the point.

Alt, D shows you this menu

View more solutions

Comments

[Louis Rhys]

+1 that's nice. Makes me wonder why it only appears with Shift

[Karan]

@LouisRhys: Because it has the Extended verb set. See my answer to know how to disable the verb.

[Louis Rhys]

+1 cool. However, it still didn't show up when clicking on empty space in folder (it shows up when pressing shift). Any idea?

[Karan]

@LouisRhys: See my edited answer above.

[Louis Rhys]

that's cool! Do you happen to know if it's possible to rearrange the position of the menu too?

[Karan]

As in, move the Command Prompt option to another position? Unlikely since one can't control where other programs add their entries, but I'll look into it and let you know.

[DanteTheEgregore]

This fails completely to answer OP's question. Could you at least take some time to clarify your answer and explain your reasoning?

[user266088]

Have you tried it? This definitely works in Win-7 (a tag applied to the OP), and probably in Vista; it doesn't in XP.

[DanteTheEgregore]

Did you bother to even read OP's question? He's looking for a way to spawn a CMD in the current directory he has open in Explorer via the context menu. Your suggestion just spawns a CMD. He'd still have to CD over to his current directory which doesn't help at all.

[user266088]

Not in Windows Vista & 7 where the method I described works. This works for other console programs as well, e.g. Powershell.exe or tcc.exe. This behaviour has been described on various other forums, e.g. lifehacker, stackoverflow, jpsoft. I don't think that the OP wanted to limit any solutions to a context menu.

[LMSingh]

@user266088 this is an excellent trick!! If I could multiple vote up I'd do it! I guess I've not been looking at other forums for this, since I was happy with my solution listed as an answer to another question. My solution works even on files in any explorer context menu BTW.

[Wally]

Upvoted. This is correct for Windows 7 Professional, and I never knew it. It's certainly easy enough to hit "ALT+D" to get the address bar, "CMD[ENTER]" and voila-- command prompt at the current directory.

[AcidJunkie]

Upvoted for this nice trick. Wasn't aware of this

[w32sh]

In English versions, the shortcut would be Alt, F, P

[DavidPostill]

@w32sh That open a properties dialog for me on Windows 7, which is what the question is tagged.

[w32sh]

My mistake. Thought I was in Windows 10 topic area.

[bugybunny]

I know OP’s question was for Win7 but for Win8 and upwards MS finally implemented Ctrl+L (like all browsers that I‘m aware of) to set focus to the address bar. So for Win10 I hit Ctrl+L and then type cmd. One downside is that the path then changes to "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" which is annoying as hell, I guess this also happens in older Windows versions. See superuser.com/q/1451924/389874 for this problem, unfortunately no solution yet.

[Janaka Bandara]

Excellent! This should be the accepted answer (much faster than point-and-click as pointed by @Wally); and @bugybunny this works for me in Win10 as expected (opens current dir in cmd) - at least v1809