In Windows Vista, you can no longer drag a folder from Explorer on to a Command Prompt and have it change to that directory.  They say it is a security feature.  But, they did add the ability to shift+right-click on a folder to show the option to Open Command Window Here.  This was something on XP that was you could add through a Windows Explorer extension.  I’ll admit, it’s a nice feature to have built into Vista, however, I stumbled across an even nicer shortcut (read: magic) for those of us that are prone to using the keyboard over the mouse, when it comes to shortcuts.  To quickly open a command prompt to the folder you have open in Explorer, hit Alt+D (mouse users: click on any empty space in the Address Bar), type cmd and then hit Enter.  I told you it was magic!

1. In Windows Explorer, hit Alt+D
2. Type cmd
3. Hit Enter
4. A command prompt window will open to the folder you had open in Explorer

I’ve been working on some Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer extensions and for the ease of testing I have to constantly restart Explorer.  Heck, I’ve just probably saved myself an extra 10-20 seconds per day.  I know, I’m weird, but you know what they say about special weird people…

If you’ve been looking for a reason to upgrade to Vista folks, this is definitely it (only kidding, of course) because it doesn’t work on XP (ugh, I feel my subconscious bullying me into creating an extension for XP to mimic this functionality…must…resist…urge)!