Use the command ‘Write‘ to open WordPad application from command line, where WordPad is installed. Normally one would assume that the command would be wordpad if it can be launched from command line. But in this case it is Write. No idea why is it so.
write
This works on Windows 10, Windows 11 releases before 24H2, and older systems where WordPad is installed. Microsoft removed WordPad and write.exe starting with Windows 11 version 24H2 and Windows Server 2025, so the command is no longer available there.
However, we can use either wordpad or write from Run window. We can specify file name as an argument to these commands.
For example:
write "C:\My Documents\notes.rtf"
Use the path of your file, with double quotes if it contains spaces.
On versions without WordPad, Microsoft recommends Word for rich-text documents such as .rtf files and Notepad for plain-text files such as .txt files.
I’m running Wordpad from within an app I’m developing. I create a .WRI file and then use the shellexecute API to open the file. Shellexecute in Win 10 only prints .DOC files (If Word is available). I’m looking for a list of command line options for wordpad so I can send then via Shellexecute to Wordpad. Any help?
fsutil hardlink create “c:\windows\system32\wordpad.exe” “c:\windows\system32\write.exe”
Very helpful thanks lot
helpful tip.
very helpful……….thankx
you clearly don't remember Windows Write – Wordpad's more(!) primitive progenitor from 16-bit Windows
Try using the full path for wordpad:
“%ProgramFiles%\Windows NT\Accessories\wordpad.exe”
then type a and the path of the file u want to open. This worked for me on Windows 10.
Hope this helps.
Best Regards,
G