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# How to open the Settings app from the Command Prompt in Windows
- URL: https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/how-to-windows-settings-command/
- Published: 2015-07-27T11:09:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-23T22:11:20.000Z
- Description: Learn how to open the Windows Settings app from the Run dialog, Terminal app, Command Prompt (cmd), and PowerShell. For Windows 10 and 11.
- Author: Daniel Aleksandersen
- Tags: Microsoft Windows, PowerShell

You can open the legacy Windows Control Panel by starting `control.exe`, but how do you open the Windows Settings app from the Command Prompt or PowerShell?

You can open the Settings app directly from the Command Prompt (`cmd.exe`) in Windows 10 using the following command:

```shell
start ms-settings:
```

Omit the `start` program prefix from the above command if you want to run it from the Run dialog (Windows key + R) instead of from within a Command Prompt session.

The Run dialog will recognize the Settings app’s URI scheme (`ms-settings`) without passing it through ‘`start`’ and start the Settings app accordingly. You’ll still need to use the `start` program if you want to launch the Settings app from a batch file, however.

You can optimistically type in an English language keyword after the colon to direct you towards the right section of the Settings app. For example, `ms-settings:network` will go directly to the Network and Internet section of the Settings app.

There’s no penalty for guessing wrong, so just take a guess and maybe you’ll drop straight into `settings:windowsupdate` without using the mouse. App developers and web authors should take care to link their users directly to the right section in Settings, reducing documentation needs and user friction.

You can use the same command in PowerShell — where `start` is an alias for `Start-Process`. Or, you can spell it out fully using the PowerShell commandlets (as shown below).

```powershell
Start-Process "ms-settings:"
```

These commands — actually the whole `ms-settings:` URI schema — will not work on older versions of Windows like Windows 8 and 8.1\. Also, note that the Settings app is unavailable from within Windows Recovery mode.

In my opinion, this is kind of a strange decision as the reason you’re in recovery mode may be caused by a setting. However, user settings don’t apply at all within recovery mode so it could have been a very confusing experience if you were allowed to open the Settings app.

Users on Windows 10 can click here to [open the Settings app](ms-settings:) directly from their web browser. The link won’t do anything or may trigger an error message on other operating systems.