Type “cmd” into Explorer's address bar

The classic ritual: open a terminal, then click your way to the folder you want to work in using cd and name completion. Yet you're often already there — in File Explorer. Explorer's address bar doesn't just display a path: it can also execute commands. Type “cmd” into it, and a command prompt opens with its working directory set exactly to the folder you're already looking at.

How to do it

1. In File Explorer, navigate to the folder you want to work in.
2. Click into the address bar, or press Ctrl + L or Alt + D — the path gets selected.
3. Type cmd and press Enter — a command prompt opens in the current folder. Type powershell instead, and you get PowerShell.
4. It also works the other way and more generally: you can paste any path into the address bar and press Enter to jump there, type a system folder name like Downloads, or launch a program that's on the system path.
5. A no-typing alternative: right-click an empty spot in the folder — Windows 11 offers Open in Windows Terminal right in the context menu.

A typical scenario

You've downloaded a project you need to install or build: npm install, pip install -r requirements.txt, a quick git status. You already have the folder open in File Explorer because you were checking what's in it. Instead of opening a terminal and building the path via cd C:\Users\... — stopping at every space in the name — you click into the address bar, type three letters, and the terminal opens exactly where you need it.

It's handy outside development too: a quick winget install in any folder, bulk operations via ren, or checking what's blocking a file from being deleted.

What you get out of it

• No more building paths: cd with long paths full of spaces and accented characters is a chore even with autocomplete — here it disappears entirely.
• Speed: three letters and Enter beat opening a terminal and running several navigation commands.
• A smooth handoff between worlds: Explorer for browsing, the terminal for working — and switching between them stops hurting.

Pro tip

If you type in the terminal more often than you browse in Explorer, the reverse direction works too: in an open terminal, type explorer . (with the period) and the current directory opens as an Explorer window. The pair — cmd in the address bar and explorer . in the terminal — covers the transition both ways. And if you catch yourself popping a terminal open many times a day, check out quake mode in Windows Terminal, which keeps it permanently ready on one global shortcut.