Discussion on: Add a Bash-like autocomplete to your PowerShell

[Bruno Vieira]

Tips:

• PowerShell has a default KeyHandler for MenuComplete, that is Ctrl+Space.
• PowerShell has the alias start for its Start-Process cmdlet, that allows you to spawn an application process, but the key is that, on Windows, when you call Start-Process for a file, the OS will start the process of the default application for that file type AND pass the file as a parameter for it as well, opening it. So, in practice, it's the exact same as open from MacOS, but you write start, like this:

    PS > start .     // will open the current directory on the default file explorer
    PS > start notepad file.txt     // will start notepad opening file.txt
    PS > start notepad     // will only start notepad
    PS > start file.txt     // will start the process for default app for txt files, and open file.txt on it

You can also call the default app process without using start, for example, doing this:

    PS > explorer .
    PS > notepad file.txt
    PS > file.txt

The only thing you CAN'T do on PowerShell by default is opening a folder without either a command or an explicit call to explorer.exe.