Windows equivalent of the Mac OS X “open” command

Try explorer <filename>. For example I wanted to launch a folder named abc placed at desktop, so I used the command

explorer abc

I use to write

explorer.exe <file>

Just typing the file name into a console window will open the file in Windows. I tried several formats - .doc opened with OpenOffice, .mp3 opened with Windows Media Player, and .txt opened with Wordpad. This is the same behavior I experience when double clicking on the files.

The closest thing available is start.

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If its first argument is double-quoted, that argument is treated as a window title rather than a filename. Thus, to use it robustly, add an empty string as the first argument:

start "" "my filename.foo"

_{Thank you to @Holger for pointing this out!}