How to open a new tab in Chrome in an existing/running Chrome with cmd

If Chrome is your default browser, you can try this:

start "" "http://www.google.com"

It will open the URL in the existing window or start your default browser if you haven't opened one yet.

You can also set the limitation to not to open the link if the browser isn't running:

tasklist /nh|findstr "chrome.exe"&&start "" "http://www.google.com"

This will open the URL only if chrome.exe has been found within the running tasks.

The command, chrome ... doesn't seem to work

'chrome' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or a batch file

That is because chrome is not in your path. You can add the Chrome directory to your path (see What are PATH and other environment variables, and how can I set or use them?) or use the full path to Chrome when running it.

Example:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"

Is it possible, with cmd, to open a new tab with a specific URL in a running Google Chrome?

Yes.

Example:

rem start chrome
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"
rem open google in a tab in the already running chrome
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" google.com

Answering this for Ubuntu users for reference.

Run command google-chrome --app-url "http://localhost/"

Replace your desired URL in the parameter.

You can get more options like incognito mode etc. Run google-chrome --help to see the options.

Other answers gave good details, just accumulating from all & my trials:

start command

Below opened default browser (IE for me in Windows 10):

start "" "http://www.google.com"

tasklist command

"tasklist /nh|findstr .." This din't work, possibly because now Chrome runs several instances of chrome, some background and some foreground, so it only listed all chrome instances as in task manager.

%ProgramFiles(x86)\..\chrome.exe

For me, first one opened a new tab in already running Chrome, else opens a new window:

"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" "http://www.google.com"

If above din't work, below may work:

"%ProgramFiles%\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" "http://www.google.com"

%ProgramFiles(x86)% helps to skip to mention if it is C:\ or D:\ or other

Here's the solution to that.

If you havent opened chrome yet try writing this in CMD:

start chrome instagram.com/albotravel

That's my page as an example, now if you want to open another tab on that existing/running chrome that we just opened type this in CMD:

start chrome /new-tab instagram.com/albografi

That's it!