How to Open Microsoft Outlook from PowerShell
Introduction
Having ability to open Microsoft Outlook from PowerShell is extremely useful. It can save your time and energy by allowing you to automate opening the file so we can avoid repetitive tasks.
In this article, we’ll walk you through how to use PowerShell commands to open Outlook.
Solution
Using Start-Process
Once you are in PowerShell environment, you can type in Start-Process followed by the path of your Outlook executable file.
In this case, we are going to open Outlook that is physically located at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\OUTLOOK.EXE, you would type following script into PowerShell.
Start-Process 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\OUTLOOK.EXE'
The Start-Process command will launch Outlook immediately.
Using Invoke-Item
Another useful command is Invoke-Item which can also be used to open specific item. To use this command, simply enter it followed by the path of the file.
Invoke-Item 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\OUTLOOK.EXE'
This will automatically launch Outlook.
Using Call Operator (&)
Call Operator & can also be used to open Outlook. The pattern is the same with previous example where the operator must be followed by the path of Outlook executable file.
& 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\OUTLOOK.EXE'
Windows Start Command
Since we can use Windows Command Prompt on PowerShell, we can also use its command like start. This command can only be run in Windows. The pattern to use the command is a bit different where we don’t need to specify the path of Outlook executable file.
start outlook
Conclusion
Using Windows PowerShell commands makes opening Outlook incredibly easy and efficient, just remember we can use Start-Process, Invoke-Item or Call Operator & command to open the application.
Besides that, we can also use command from Windows Command Prompt like start.