Buzz
Today, Mytour will guide you through the process of using Command Prompt on Windows to start and run an executable (EXE) file on your computer.
Steps
Open the Start menu on your computer. Click the Start button in the lower-left corner of your desktop screen to open the Start menu.
Type and search for cmd in the Start menu. Command Prompt will appear at the top of the search results list.
Click on Command Prompt in the Start menu. A new Command Prompt window will appear.
Type cd [filepath] into the Command Prompt. This command will navigate you to the directory containing the executable file you wish to run.
Locate the file path of the folder containing the executable file. Open the folder with File Explorer and copy or write down the path from the address bar at the top of the window.
- For example, if you intend to launch Mozilla Firefox, the executable file might be found in the Mozilla Firefox folder within the Program Files directory on your C drive.
- In this case, the path would be C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox.
Insert the file path into the [filepath] part of the command. After navigating to this path, you can run the command and execute the program located in that folder.
- For example, to run Mozilla Firefox, the command would be cd C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox.
Press ↵ Enter or ⏎ Return. This will direct you to the specified file path in the Command Prompt.
Enter start [filename.exe] into the Command Prompt. This command will launch the program from the specified file path.
Replace [filename.exe] with the exact name of the program. The name must exactly match the executable file's name in the folder.
- For example, when launching Mozilla Firefox, the default executable name is firefox.exe.
- In this case, the command would be start firefox.exe.
Press ↵ Enter or ⏎ Return. The chosen program will begin running on your computer.
Tip
- Alternatively, you can open Command Prompt using the Windows Run feature. To do this, press ⊞ Win+R, type cmd into the box, and click the Run button to open Command Prompt.
