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?

Answer 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.

Answer 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.

Answer 3

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

Answer 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

Answer 5

Without registry edit, you can achieve this with an answer to a similar but slightly different question (How do I get a right-click command line for a folder?). Works in all versions of Windows NT onwards.

Answer 6

If you want as shown in the image

1. make sure new windows terminal is installed from windows store
2. make sure git bash is installed (if you don't need remove its code)
3. download terminal ico file and place in "C:\ProgramData"
4. copy/paste reg code to text file change extension to .reg
5. replace username with your username and save file
6. double click on the file and click yes, yes
7. open terminal settings and configure as you like

https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/blob/main/res/terminal.ico

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\WindowsTerminal]
@=""
"Icon"="C:\\ProgramData\\terminal.ico"
"ExtendedSubCommandsKey"="Directory\\ContextMenus\\WindowsTerminal"
"MUIVerb"="Windows Terminal"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\ContextMenus\WindowsTerminal]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\ContextMenus\WindowsTerminal\shell]

; ________ GIT BASH ________
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\ContextMenus\WindowsTerminal\shell\bash]
"MUIVerb"="bash"
"Icon"="C:\\Program Files\\Git\\mingw64\\share\\git\\git-for-windows.ico"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\ContextMenus\WindowsTerminal\shell\bash\command]
@="C:\\Users\\username\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\WindowsApps\\wt.exe new-tab -p bash -d ."

; ________ CMD ________
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\ContextMenus\WindowsTerminal\shell\cmd]
"MUIVerb"="cmd"
"Icon"="cmd.exe"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\ContextMenus\WindowsTerminal\shell\cmd\command]
@="C:\\Users\\username\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\WindowsApps\\wt.exe new-tab -p cmd -d ."

; ________ POWER SHELL ________
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\ContextMenus\WindowsTerminal\shell\pwsh]
"MUIVerb"="powershell"
"Icon"="powershell.exe"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\ContextMenus\WindowsTerminal\shell\pwsh\command]
@="C:\\Users\\username\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\WindowsApps\\wt.exe new-tab -p powershell -d ."

The new windows terminal's settings should look like this

"profiles":
    {
        "defaults":
        {
            // Put settings here that you want to apply to all profiles.
            "startingDirectory": "%userprofile%",
            "fontSize" : 10,
            "useAcrylic": true,
            "acrylicOpacity": 0.9
        },
        "list":
        [
            {
                "guid": "{0caa0dad-35be-5f56-a8ff-afceeeaa6101}",
                "name": "cmd",
                "commandline": "cmd.exe",
                "hidden": false
            },
            {
                "guid": "{00000000-0000-0000-ba88-000000000002}",
                "closeOnExit" : "always",
                "commandline" : "\"%PROGRAMFILES%\\git\\usr\\bin\\bash.exe\" -i -l",
                "icon" : "C:\\Program Files\\Git\\mingw64\\share\\git\\git-for-windows.ico",
                "name" : "bash",
                "background": "#141f25"
            },
            {
                "guid": "{61c54bbd-c2c6-5271-96e7-009a87ff44bf}",
                "name": "powershell",
                "commandline": "powershell.exe",
                "hidden": false,
                "background": "#2d3f70"
            }
        ]
    },

Answer 7

You could remove 2 steps from your workflow by doing the following:

1. Copy the current folder path from Windows explorer's address bar
2. Start Menu -> Run -> Type cd /D "D:\Foo\Bar\Bar1 >> cmd

The command cd /D "D:\Foo\Bar\Bar1 >> cmd opens a cmd with the directory set to D:\Foo\Bar\Bar1

I hope that helps!