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Can I launch URLs directly from the command line in Windows?

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  • I always thought iexplore www.google.com would work i'm sure i've done it in the past loads of times, but it didn't. So, stick c:\program files\internet explorer, in the path and it will. Personally I make another environment variable for long boring stuff like MOREPATH="c:\program files\internet explorer". Then path=.......;%MOREPATH% That's in control panel..system..environment variables. now iexplore www.google.com will damn well work! Commented May 22, 2011 at 17:38
  • You can create a local .URL file (just drag and drop the address from your browser to your desktop). Then run that URL file from your command line (with "call" or "start") Commented Jan 11, 2024 at 8:04

9 Answers 9

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Yes, with the start command. Example:

start http://www.google.com

That will use the user's default browser.
As stated by Joey, you should use a different format for URLs with special chars: 

start "" "http://www.google.com"
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    Remember to use start "" "some://url?with=special&chars=:->" otherwise things will break. Commented Sep 6, 2009 at 7:22
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    I need to remove the quotes, otherwise it opens a new CMD. Commented May 26, 2017 at 8:53
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    @daVe you need an empty quote pair like Joey said if the url is quoted Commented Jun 4, 2018 at 15:00
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    @Joey When the comment is more useful than the answer... Commented Nov 9, 2018 at 21:28
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    When the FIRST parameter has quotes, it is taken as the title of the CMD window. That's why start "" thingie run thingie, but start "thingie" runs CMD. Commented Sep 2, 2021 at 3:12
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you can use 

start http://www.google.com

Interestingly only following combination are working for above url :

start www.google.com
start http://google.com
start http://blog.google.com

But following is not working :

start google.com
start asp.net
start blog.google.com

I think it is because in the later example google.com and asp.net are treated as files and it tries to find google.com file and gives error on not finding it.

I think it is hardcoded for www. Any better guesses ?

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    It's probably because start works for several applications (not only websites). providing at least www or http:// the start command links your URI to the HTTP protocol, while it could probably run other protocols. Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 18:22
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You could use explorer <url> which will use your default browser.

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  • @ekaj Your right :/ First time i tried it it didn't work - for some reason it now worked ... comment deleted Commented Nov 24, 2014 at 20:04
  • Windows Server 2016: First time it displays a prompt asking you to choose a default browser, with a checkbox asking "Always use this app". Commented Nov 18, 2020 at 11:22
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What's "launch" in this context? You can start http://www.foo.bar/ or the like, your default browser will come up and visit that URL -- is that what you mean?

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You can use this in Powershell:

Start-Process "URL"
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Here's a cheap approach that will work on XP at least:

"%PROGRAMFILES%\Internet Explorer\IExplore" "http://www.msn.com"
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    Ouch... and msn.com no less. Commented Sep 6, 2009 at 5:09
  • first thing that came to mind...for no apparent reason whatsoever Commented Sep 6, 2009 at 6:38
  • Cheap in what sense? Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 18:19
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    @Kazark: cheap in that it opens up the URL in Internet Explorer as opposed to whatever the default browser happens to be. Commented Aug 11, 2014 at 11:44
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you can run this below command and it will redirect to google chrome browser

C:\>start 'http://www.google.com'
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Using start works fine, but it leaves the browser open to the web page.

How can you connect to a URL either 1) use the browser method and automatically close the tab, or 2) do it without starting the browser?

Mark.

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From C# code you could just run this (cmd-start equivalent): 

Process.Start("http://stackoverflow.com");

You've launched your url from a command-line directly (i.e. without running another program first).

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  • Is this C#? This does not work for me on Windows 7 using cmd.exe. Commented Jun 6, 2012 at 19:06
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    Tried this in PowerShell and it didn't work. Must be C#. Does this really answer the question? Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 17:56
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    This is not CMD syntax, nor does it seem to be valid Powershell. I could remove my downvote if the poster updated his answer with details. Commented Jan 5, 2017 at 12:10

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