Is it possible to open a Windows Explorer window from PowerShell?

Question

I\'m sure this must be possible, but I can\'t find out how to do it.

Any clues?

Answer 1

You have a few options:

• Powershell looks for executables in your path, just as cmd.exe does. So you can just type explorer on the powershell prompt. Using this method, you can also pass cmd-line arguments (see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314853)
• The Invoke-Item cmdlet provides a way to run an executable file or to open a file (or set of files) from within Windows PowerShell. Alias: ii
• use system.diagnostics.process

Examples:

PS C:\> explorer
PS C:\> explorer .
PS C:\> explorer /n
PS C:\> Invoke-Item c:\path\
PS C:\> ii c:\path\
PS C:\> Invoke-Item c:\windows\explorer.exe
PS C:\> ii c:\windows\explorer.exe
PS C:\> [diagnostics.process]::start("explorer.exe")