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?

Retard

Answer 1

Use:

ii .

which is short for

Invoke-Item .

The dot can be substituted with any path.

Beatitude

So default first parameter of ii is explorer, second param is path. – Circuit

the PowerShell equivalent of start . – Valenti

Answer 2

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")

Ytterbia

You can also do: invoke-item c:\path\ – Iberian

This is the best worded and most informative answer here, and should also include the other upvoted answers here, especially "ii ." – Mastiff

ii is an alias of Invoke-Item – Eastwood

Answer 3

Use any of these:

1. start .
2. explorer .
3. start explorer .
4. ii .
5. invoke-item .

You may apply any of these commands in PowerShell.

Just in case you want to open the explorer from the command prompt, the last two commands don't work, and the first three work fine.

Recognizance

Answer 4

Just use the Invoke-Item cmdlet. For example, if you want to open a explorer window on the current directory you can do:

Invoke-Item .

Galvin

An alias for that is ii . – Cotten

Answer 5

explorer .

Lamas

This is what I've been using for years, but recently explorer seems to be out my path – Mastiff

Answer 6

I came across this question looking for a way to open an Explorer window from PowerShell and also select a file. I'm adding this answer in case others come across it for the same reason.

To launch Explorer and select a file, use Invoke-Expression:

Invoke-Expression "explorer '/select,$filePath'"

There are probably other ways to do this, but this worked for me.

Damascus

+1. Thanks for this. If the path has spaces in this then this will work. Invoke-Expression "explorer '/select,""$filePath""' – Haematozoon

@Haematozoon You made a typo, it's: Invoke-Expression "explorer '/select,""$filePath""'" – Hassiehassin

Answer 7

$startinfo = new-object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo 
$startinfo.FileName = "explorer.exe"
$startinfo.WorkingDirectory = 'D:\foldername'

[System.Diagnostics.Process]::Start($startinfo)

Hope this helps

Alexis

I don't know why this is getting voted down -- I can see not voting it up for the lack of elegance, but it's still a good (though wordy) answer :) You get my UP. – Otiliaotina

I agree. It's a lot more code, but it allows some flexibility. – Chinchin

When I use this code, it opens Explorer, but not the directory I passed as the WorkingDirectory. It just opens the Libraries folder. The answer shovavnik submitted does it correctly in a single line. – Smoothtongued

Answer 8

start explorer.exe 

Simple single line command

Felon

This works in both Powershell and CMD. – Vuong

Answer 9

This is the only thing that fit my unique constraints of wanting the folder to open as a Quizo Tab in any existing Explorer window.

$objShell = New-Object -ComObject "Shell.Application"
$objShell.Explore("path")

Ammonal

This really seems to be the best answer. Not only does this ensure that folders open in Directory Opus, Quizo Tab, or whatever custom file explorer you might have, but it's more secure. If you're trying to open a path based on user input, most of these answers allow execution of arbitrary shell commands and executables. As far as I can tell, the method described in this answer can only open a default file explorer window to a desired location. Trying to pass in C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe for instance, results in an error. – Shifra

Answer 10

Single line command ,this worked for me

explorer .\

Orren

Answer 11

I wanted to write this as a comment but I do not have 50 reputation.

All of the answers in this thread are essentially to use Invoke-Item or to use explorer.exe directly; however, this isn't completely synonymous with "open containing folder", so in terms of opening an Explorer window as the question states, if we wanted to apply the answer to a particular file the question still hasn't really been answered.

e.g.,

Invoke-Item C:\Users\Foo\bar.txt
explorer.exe C:\Users\Foo\bar.html

^ those two commands would result in Notepad.exe or Firefox.exe being invoked on the two files respectively, not an explorer.exe window on C:\Users\Foo\ (the containing directory).

Whereas if one was issuing this command from powershell, this would be no big deal (less typing anyway), if one is scripting and needs to "open containing folder" on a variable, it becomes a matter of string matching to extract the directory from the full path to the file.

Is there no simple command "Open-Containing-Folder" such that a variable could be substituted?

e.g.,

$foo = "C:\Users\Foo\foo.txt"    
[some code] $fooPath
# opens C:\Users\Foo\ and not the default program for .txt file extension

Hobo

Invoke-Item ([io.fileinfo]"C:\temp\file.txt").Directory – Brunella

An alternative that is essentially the same but keeps it all in Powershell cmdlets: ii (Split-Path "C:\temp\file.txt") – Beatitude

Answer 12

for powershell maybe this is an idea for windows 11, i did not figure out how to open all locations/folders in one window with n tabs. $c = @('c:\users', 'c:', 'c:\temp'); Invoke-Item $c

Filomenafiloplume

Answer 13

If you need certain credential to access to a folder (or a UNC path), explorer $fooPath will prompt you for the credential, but Invoke-Item or Set-Location $fooPath will throw an ItemNotFoundException.

Heimlich