 <p>Found my answer in <a href="http://vimcasts.org/episodes/the-file-explorer/" rel="nofollow">this</a> Vimcast. <code>:Explore</code> or <code>:E</code> will open up Netrw in the current file's directory. I got an <code>ambiguous use of user-defined command</code> error at first when I tried to use <code>:E</code>, but <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14367440/map-e-to-explore-in-command-mode">this</a> SO answer helped fix that. I just had to add this command to my <code>.vimrc</code>, <code>command! -nargs=* -bar -bang -count=0 -complete=dir E Explore &lt;args&gt;</code>. <code>:E</code> only works if there are no other possible commands that start with <code>:E</code>.</p>