Open Explorer Folder from Current Command Prompt Directory Path

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Here is a little command to quickly open the current directory you’re viewing in the Command Prompt with Windows Explorer. For example, if you were in C:\Windows\System32>, typing in one of the below commands would open the “System32” folder as an Explorer window.

start .
explorer .

Command Prompt Explorer Window

The . (period) is for the current directory. So if you want to open the parent directory, simply type in start ... And you’ll then see a file browsing window to the “C:\Windows” folder. This works in every version of Windows.

If you’re familiar with ‘Shift + Right-click > Open a command window here‘ method that opens an Explorer folder in Command Prompt, you guessed it right, that is the opposite of this command.

Similar commands are available in other operating systems too:

Open File Browser from Terminal in Ubuntu

From your terminal window, just type in the following command:

nautilus .

Open Finder from Terminal in Mac OS

open .