Windows equivalent command for “open” command on Mac

command linemacwindows

Coming from Mac OS X, you can type:

open yourfilehere.txt

and your file will open just as if you had opened it from Finder.

On Windows, I'd like to be able to open files in the same manner. What's the command?

Best Answer

Just drop the 'open' and you're set.

Enter the filename and it will open with the appropriate program.

You'll need to consider the path to the file, so executing the above would only work if the file is within the current directory.

Related Solutions

Linux – Equivalent Command for ‘Open’ Command on Mac/Windows

xdg-open is what you're looking for.

You might like this snippet I put in my .bashrc files so that whether I'm using cygwin on windows, linux, or OSX, I can use either the start or the open commands and they work great:

case "$OSTYPE" in
   cygwin*)
      alias open="cmd /c start"
      ;;
   linux*)
      alias start="xdg-open"
      alias open="xdg-open"
      ;;
   darwin*)
      alias start="open"
      ;;
esac

Good comments, xdg-open is indeed a better option than gnome-open as explained below. I updated my personal scripts a while ago, but forgot to update this answer.

WARNING: This will override the functionality of both openvt (virtual terminal) and start from init.

Macos – Open file with Quick Look from command shell

qlmanage -p file will do what you want, I think.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Linux – Equivalent Command for ‘Open’ Command on Mac/Windows

Macos – Open file with Quick Look from command shell

Related Question