Windows 11 Shell Commands – the complete list

Here is the full list of Windows 11 Shell Commands that includes both friendly named commands and GUID locations. All modern Windows versions come with a number of shell commands. Such commands start with the shell: prefix which is followed by some friendly name, like shell:Startup, or by a GUID value. You can use shell commands to open some system folder, built-in feature, or a Control Panel applet directly.

A good example of such commands is shell:Startup. This is one of the most useful commands that opens the Startup folder directly for the current user.

The similar commands can be used to open the a ton of other tools and folders. There is a shell command that opens the the famous All Task folder, also known as God Mode.

So, here is the full list of Windows 11 Shell Commands.

The list of Shell Commands in Windows 11

The following tables contain the full list of shell commands available in Windows 11. The first table includes commands with friendly names, such as shell:some command name. They are easy to remember, and you can tell what they do at a glance. The next table includes a different category of shell commands, which have no friendly names, but can be started using the following syntax: shel:::{GUID}. Long story short, let's see the commands.

Windows 11 Shell commands with friendly names

To try these commands in action, copy a commands from the first column, then press Win + R and paste it to the Run box. After you hit the Enter key, Windows 11 will execute the shell command.

That's all about the friendly named shell commands. How, let's see the shell commands that are represented by GUID values.

Shell commands with GUID values

The commands in the table below may or may not have a corresponding "friendly named" equivalent. Their syntax is slightly different. So, to launch a GUID command, run it as follows: shell::{SOME GUID}. For example, the command shell::{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6} opens the OneDrive folder for the current user. The other command, shell::{ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921}, open the classic Personalization dialog in Windows 7 style.

Finally, you can create a shortcut to any shell command from the tables above. Here's how you can do it.

Create a shortcut to a shell command in Windows 11

1. Right-click your desktop, and select New item > Shortcut from the menu.
2. In the object box, type explorer.exe shell:command. Substitute the "command" portion with the desired friendly name or GUID. Don't forget to add three colons to get the shell:::{GUID} value.
3. Give your shortcut some meaningful name.
4. Click on Finish to close the create new shortcut wizard.
5. Finally, right-click your shortcut and change its icon to something other than the default Explorer icon.

For example, you can create a "minimize all windows" shortcut. The command is shell:::{3080F90D-D7AD-11D9-BD98-0000947B0257}. When you click this shortcut, it will minimize all windows to the taskbar.

That's it.

Support us

Winaero greatly relies on your support. You can help the site keep bringing you interesting and useful content and software by using these options: