elisp shell command for opening the current dir in OS

[Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com>]

how to get emacs on windows to open the current dir the OS's file
manager?

on os x, i just do
(shell-command "open .")

On Windows Vista, i tried
(shell-command "explorer .")
which does the job but freezes emacs in the background until the
folder is closed.

I tried
(shell-command "explorer . &")
but that still leaves a running process.
This is annoying when you call shell command again, cause it'll ask
you if you want to kill previous instance.

(shell-command "start explorer . ")
seems to invoke cmd-shell.

Thanks.

Here's the function i'm trying to write:

(defun open-in-desktop ()
  "Open the current file in desktop."
  (interactive)
  (let (cmdStr)
    (cond
     ((string-equal system-type "windows-nt") (setq cmdStr "explorer .
&"))
     ((string-equal system-type "darwin") (setq cmdStr "open ."))
     )
    (shell-command cmdStr)
    )
  )

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄