computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, ...

, start is a command of the IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows and ReactOS

command-line interpreter A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive command (computing), commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invokin ...

cmd.exe (and some versions of COMMAND.COM) to start programs or batch files or to open files or directories using the default program. is not available as a standalone program. The underlying Win32 API is . The command is also one of the basic commands implemented in the Keyboard Monitor (KMON) of the DEC RT-11 operating system. The TOPS-10 and

TOPS-20 The TOPS-20 operating system by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) is a proprietary OS used on some of DEC's 36-bit mainframe computers. The Hardware Reference Manual was described as for "DECsystem-10/DECSYSTEM-20 Processor" (meaning the DEC PD ...

operating systems also provide a start command. It is used to start a program in memory at a specified address.

Other environments

* Typical Unix shells ( bash, etc.) have no built-in registry of file types and associated default applications. Linux command-line tools with similar functions include xdg-open and run-mailcap. * On Cygwin, the command is implemented as the executable. * In PowerShell, the Invoke-Item cmdlet is used to invoke an exec