MS-DOS and Windows command line start command
The start command enables a user to open a separate window from the Windows command line.
For help with how to start using the command line, see: How to use the Windows command line (DOS).
Availability
Start is an internal command that is available in the following Microsoft operating systems.
Start syntax
Windows Vista and later syntax
| «title» | Title to display in the window’s title bar. |
| path | Starting directory. |
| /B | Start an application without creating a new window. The application has ^C handling ignored. Unless the application enables ^C processing, ^Break is the only way to interrupt the application. |
| /I | The new environment will be the original environment passed to the cmd.exe and not the current environment. |
| /MIN | Start window minimized. |
| /MAX | Start window maximized. |
| /SEPARATE | Start 16-bit Windows program in separate memory space. |
| /SHARED | Start 16-bit Windows program in shared memory space. |
| /LOW | Start application in the IDLE priority class. |
| /NORMAL | Start application in the NORMAL priority class. |
| /HIGH | Start application in the HIGH priority class. |
| /REALTIME | Start application in the REALTIME priority class. |
| /ABOVENORMAL | Start application in the ABOVENORMAL priority class. |
| /BELOWNORMAL | Start application in the BELOWNORMAL priority class. |
| /NODE | Specifies the preferred NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Architecture) node as a decimal integer. |
| /AFFINITY | Specifies the processor affinity mask as a hexadecimal number. The process is restricted to running on these processors. |
The affinity mask is interpreted differently when /AFFINITY and /NODE are combined. Specify the affinity mask as if the NUMA node’s processor mask is right shifted to begin at bit zero. The process is restricted to running on those processors in common between the specified affinity mask and the NUMA node. If no processors are in common, the process is restricted to running on the specified NUMA node.
If it’s not an internal cmd command or batch file, the command is a program that runs either as a windowed application or a console application.
The SEPARATE and SHARED options are not supported on 64-bit platforms.
Specifying /NODE allows processes to be created in a way that leverages memory locality on NUMA systems. For example, two processes that communicate with each other heavily through shared memory can be created to share the same preferred NUMA node to minimize memory latencies. They allocate memory from the same NUMA node when possible, and they are free to run on processors outside the specified node.
start /NODE 1 /AFFINITY 0x3 application1.exe
start /NODE 1 /AFFINITY 0xc application2.exe
If Command Extensions are enabled, external command invocation through the command line or the START command changes as follows:
non-executable files may be invoked through their file association by typing the name of the file as a command. (e.g., WORD.DOC would launch the application associated with the .DOC file extension). See the ASSOC and FTYPE commands for how to create these associations from within a command script.
When executing an application that is a 32-bit GUI application, CMD.EXE does not wait for the application to terminate before returning to the command prompt. This new behavior does NOT occur if executing in a command script.
When executing a command line whose first token is the string «CMD» without an extension or path qualifier, then «CMD» is replaced with the value of the COMSPEC variable. This change prevents picking up CMD.EXE from the current directory.
When executing a command line whose first token does NOT contain an extension, CMD.EXE uses the value of the PATHEXT environment variable to determine the extension. The default value for the PATHEXT variable is:
Notice the syntax is the same as the PATH variable, with semicolons separating the different elements.
When searching for an executable, if there is no match on any extension, then looks to see if the name matches a directory name. If it does, the START command launches the Explorer on that path. If done from the command line, it is the equivalent to doing a CD /D to that path.
Windows XP and earlier syntax
| «title» | Title to display in the window’s title bar. |
| path | Starting directory. |
| /B | Start an application without creating a new window. The application has ^C handling ignored. Unless the application enables ^C processing, ^Break is the only way to interrupt the application. |
| /I | The new environment will be the original environment passed to the cmd.exe and not the current environment. |
| /MIN | Start window minimized. |
| /MAX | Start window maximized. |
| /SEPARATE | Start 16-bit Windows program in separate memory space. |
| /SHARED | Start 16-bit Windows program in shared memory space. |
| /LOW | Start application in the IDLE priority class. |
| /NORMAL | Start application in the NORMAL priority class. |
| /HIGH | Start application in the HIGH priority class. |
| /REALTIME | Start application in the REALTIME priority class. |
| /ABOVENORMAL | Start application in the ABOVENORMAL priority class. |
| /BELOWNORMAL | Start application in the BELOWNORMAL priority class. |
| /WAIT | Start the application and wait for it to terminate. |
| command/program | If it is an internal cmd command or a batch file, then the command processor is run with the /K switch to cmd.exe. Which means the window remains after the command is run. |
If it’s not an internal cmd command or batch file, the command is a program that runs either as a windowed application or a console application.
If Command Extensions are enabled, external command invocation through the command line or the START command changes as follows:
non-executable files may be invoked through their file association by typing the name of the file as a command. (e.g., WORD.DOC would launch the application associated with the .DOC file extension). See the ASSOC and FTYPE commands for how to create these associations from within a command script.
When executing an application that is a 32-bit GUI application, CMD.EXE does not wait for the application to terminate before returning to the command prompt. This new behavior does NOT occur if executing in a command script.
When executing a command line whose first token is the string «CMD » without an extension or path qualifier, then «CMD» is replaced with the value of the COMSPEC variable. This change prevents picking up CMD.EXE from the current directory.
When executing a command line whose first token does NOT contain an extension, CMD.EXE uses the value of the PATHEXT environment variable to determine the extension. The default value for the PATHEXT variable is:
Notice the syntax is the same as the PATH variable, with semicolons separating the different elements.
When searching for an executable, if there is no match on any extension, then looks to see if the name matches a directory name. If it does, the START command launches the Explorer on that path. If done from the command line, it is the equivalent to doing a CD /D to that path.
Start examples
Start a new instance of Notepad with the file myfile.txt.
Start the notepad window with the screen maximized.
The above example would start the batch file mybatch.bat in a minimized window.
If the file or folder has a space in it, you must surround it with quotes. In the above example, we’re starting the MP3 song file «my song.mp3». Without the quotes surrounding the file name with a space, you would get a Windows cannot find the file error.
Open the Computer Hope web page in your default browser from the command line.
start
Starts a separate Command Prompt window to run a specified program or command.
Syntax
Parameters
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Specifies the title to display in the Command Prompt window title bar. | |
| /d |
. ]]
Remarks
You can run non-executable files through their file association by typing the name of the file as a command.
If you run a command that contains the string CMD as the first token without an extension or path qualifier, CMD is replaced with the value of the COMSPEC variable. This prevents users from picking up cmd from the current directory.
If you run a 32-bit graphical user interface (GUI) application, cmd does not wait for the application to quit before returning to the command prompt. This behavior does not occur if you run the application from a command script.
If you run a command that uses a first token that does not contain an extension, Cmd.exe uses the value of the PATHEXT environment variable to determine which extensions to look for and in what order. The default value for the PATHEXT variable is:
Note that the syntax is the same as the PATH variable, with semicolons (;) separating each extension.
When searching for an executable file, if there is no match on any extension, start checks to see if the name matches a directory name. If it does, start opens Explorer.exe on that path.
Examples
To start the Myapp program at the command prompt and retain use of the current Command Prompt window, type:
To view the start command-line help topic in a separate maximized Command Prompt window, type:
Windows commands
All supported versions of Windows (server and client) have a set of Win32 console commands built in.
This set of documentation describes the Windows Commands you can use to automate tasks by using scripts or scripting tools.
Prerequisites
The information that is contained in this topic applies to:
- Windows Server 2019
- Windows Server (Semi-Annual Channel)
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows Server 2012 R2
- Windows Server 2012
- Windows Server 2008 R2
- Windows Server 2008
- Windows 10
- Windows 8.1
Command shell overview
The Command shell was the first shell built into Windows to automate routine tasks, like user account management or nightly backups, with batch (.bat) files. With Windows Script Host you could run more sophisticated scripts in the Command shell. For more information, see cscript or wscript. You can perform operations more efficiently by using scripts than you can by using the user interface. Scripts accept all Commands that are available at the command line.
Windows has two command shells: The Command shell and PowerShell. Each shell is a software program that provides direct communication between you and the operating system or application, providing an environment to automate IT operations.
PowerShell was designed to extend the capabilities of the Command shell to run PowerShell commands called cmdlets. Cmdlets are similar to Windows Commands but provide a more extensible scripting language. You can run Windows Commands and PowerShell cmdlets in Powershell, but the Command shell can only run Windows Commands and not PowerShell cmdlets.
For the most robust, up-to-date Windows automation, we recommend using PowerShell instead of Windows Commands or Windows Script Host for Windows automation.
You can also download and install PowerShell Core, the open source version of PowerShell.
Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making the following changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on the computer.
To enable or disable file and directory name completion in the Command shell on a computer or user logon session, run regedit.exe and set the following reg_DWOrd value:
To set the reg_DWOrd value, use the hexadecimal value of a control character for a particular function (for example, 0 9 is Tab and 0 08 is Backspace). User-specified settings take precedence over computer settings, and command-line options take precedence over registry settings.
Command-line reference A-Z
To find information about a specific command, in the following A-Z menu, click the letter that the command starts with, and then click the command name.
