We have an extensive article on all the features and tricks in Windows 10. However, in this article, we want to break down the functionality of opening your system settings in Windows 10 via the command prompt (CMD) interface. It’s a neat little trick that requires a small line of command. To open up Settings directly from the Command Prompt (cmd.exe) in Windows 10 using this command:
start ms-settings:
You can also launch the settings interface via the Run dialog (Win+R). Although, in this case, you omit the ‘start’ tidbit at the beginning of the command and input:
ms-settings:
Alternatively, for Windows Powershell, you would use:
Start-Process "ms-settings:"
Open A Specific Setting
When you execute start ms-settings:, by default it opens up to the main setting interface. However, if you want to go directly to say the Network settings, you may append the word “network” to the end of the command. It looks something like ms-settings:network for the run dialogue and start ms-settings:network for the CMD command.
This command takes you directly to the network settings interface in Windows 10. To check how much battery an app consumes on your laptop, you run ms-settings:batterysaver-usagedetails or start ms-settings:batterysaver-usagedetails for the run dialogue or CMD respectively.
And, the above not only works in Windows 10, the commands work in older versions of Windows as well. So, if you’re running Windows 8, Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you can use the commands in the same way. As a treat, if you are on a Windows 10 computer, from your browser, click the following link: open the Settings app. It takes you straight to the settings app. Cool, right?