In the Windows Run dialog, I can use the command shell:startup to open the user's startup folder.
In hope to be able to use the command in the Windows command line, I tried typing shell in the command prompt, but returned with the error message
'shell' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
How can I execute such run line commands in the command prompt?
Use the start-command, like the following:
start shell:startup
You can also use start /? to display help of the start-command.
The run dialog accepts not only a command but also a URL/URI or any real paths, as you can see from its description:
That's why when you open shell:startup which is a special path (specified in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\FolderDescriptions) it works normally
However in Windows cmd or PowerShell the command must be an executable file, a script file or any other files with a registered type. It won't accept a folder. To work around that use either of the following
start shell:startup
explorer shell:startup
If the path contains spaces then in cmd you must add another empty parameter due to the legacy issues in cmd.exe
start "" "shell:common startup"
If you use PowerShell then start "shell:common startup" will work normally because start is an alias to Start-Process in PowerShell. If you run explorer then you don't need that empty string either
