mark++

When manipulating files and directories, there are some actions that are naturally easier from the command line, and others that are easier from Explorer. For example, you might navigate to a directory using Explorer and then delete every file named foo*.txt using the CMD prompt.

I’m a big fan of the Command Window Here PowerToy as a means to get from Explorer to a CMD prompt.

But what about the opposite situation? Lets say I’ve just run a command line program and redirected the output to a file. Now I decide to attach the file in a new email message. Ideally, I’d drag-and-drop the file into the message, but I can’t because I’ve only got a CMD window.

For years, I’ve lusted after a solution to this annoyance, and it turns out that there is one. It’s amazingly trivial:

start .


Yup, that’s right: start dot. It’s obvious if you understand what the start command does, but I’ll be the first to admit I never would have though of this myself.

One perk of working in Redmond is the opportunity to steal some Windows-mojo from the folks who create it.

Update 3/28/2008:
Just discovered that the Mac OS X equivalent is:

open .

Yes that’s right: open dot. I dig the symmetry.