Make an Internet Shortcut file open Internet Explorer - windows

I currently have an Internet Shortcut file "My Link.url":
[InternetShortcut]
URL=https://somewebsite.com
I believe Internet Shortcut files are always opened in the default browser.
Does anyone know how to force opening in Internet Explorer?
I have come across .website files but Windows Security Shield (is that the right name?) blocks it opening.
Use case: *nix server creating a file that will be downloaded to the users desktop.

You should be able to use a normal .lnk shortcut point it to iexplore.exe and supply your url as the first parameter

Related

Forcing a launcher to be opened with Internet Explorer

Ok, I've read here and here that is not possible, on a gerneral browser, to force a link to be opened in IE.
So my question is: can I do it with a desktop launcher?
Extended question: Can I easily create a desktop launcher on Windows (10, 7 and maybe older versions) that if double clicked opens a specific URL in IE?
You can create a batch file to run the command to open IE with a specific url. You can create a .bat file and put the following code in the file:
start iexplore "http://www.bing.com"
Double click the .bat file, then it will open IE with Bing website.
Result:

Open folder on portable device with batch file

General goal: create a desktop shortcut to a folder buried the file structure of my phone's SD card (connected via USB). Note, this is on a work computer, so I can't do anything to crazy.
I tried using normal shortcuts to no avail, so I decided to try using a batch if I can't use a shortcut. If using a shortcut is possible or there is a better option than a batch let me know.
Specific question: How can I open a folder using a batch file? I can manually open explorer, paste the address into the bar and go there, so there should be a way to mimic this, but so far my attempts have been unsuccessful.
Attempts:
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe "Computer\My S4\Phone\Android\data\com.dropbox.android\files\scratch\"
explorer Computer/My S4/Phone/Android/data/com.dropbox.android/files/scratch
start "" "Computer\My S4\Phone\Android\data\com.dropbox.android\files\scratch\"
start Computer\My S4\Phone\Android\data\com.dropbox.android\files\scratch
This is an addition to Andry's answer:
It can be very complicated to get the whole path to an MTP folder like
::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\\\?\usb#vid_03de&pid_21e7&mi_00#6&a5ebb37&1&0000#{6ac27878-a6fc-2155-ea85-f98f491d4f33}\{E4FC4EA5-FFFF-FFFF-0000-000000000000}
To get the path do the following:
In Windows Explorer select the folder on the MTP device you want to get the path of.
Open it's context menu and select Copy
Open in Explorer a folder on your PC, open the context menu on a free area and select Paste Shortcut
Now we need a too that can read .lnk files. I have used the tool LECmd. Execute LECmd.exe -f <path to the .lnk file created in step 3>.
You will get a lot of content printed to the console. The interesting part is the Parsing Path next to the end.
In my case it was ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\\\?\usb#vid_03de&pid_21e7&mi_00#6&a5ebb37&1&0000#{6ac27878-a6fc-2155-ea85-f98f491d4f33}\SID-{10001,,21003612160}\{E4FC4EA5-FFFF-FFFF-0000-000000000000}
Now we are close, unfortunately the path shown above can not be used because it contains an invalid part: \SID-{10001,,21003612160}. Remove that part and you can open the explorer in that MTP folder using
start "" "::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\\\?\usb#vid_03de&pid_21e7&mi_00#6&a5ebb37&1&0000#{6ac27878-a6fc-2155-ea85-f98f491d4f33}\{E4FC4EA5-FFFF-FFFF-0000-000000000000}"
There is a way to open an MTP device folder directly in the Windows Explorer window on Windows 7 x64.
Here is steps:
Open Windows Explorer with the My Computer folder, for example:
start "" "::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}"
start "" "shell:::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}"
explorer "::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}"
explorer "shell:::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}"
The complete list of GUIDs you can find on the internet, for example: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3123-clsid-key-guid-shortcuts-list-windows-10-a.html
Attach the MTP device and enable File Transfer mode in the device. It must be shown in the My Computer window as a portable device entry.
Drag and Drop the MTP device entry icon to the Desktop.
Open any notepad, for the instance, Windows notepad: Win+R -> notepad
Drag and drop the desktop icon into notepad window.
At the end of the notepad text would be something like:
::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\\\?\usb#vid_0e8d&pid_201d&mi_00#7&1084e14&0&0000#{6ac27878-a6fa-4155-ba85-f98f491d4f33} (spaces removed).
You can cleanup the spaces between characters by copy the string into another instance of the notepad and replace them through the Ctrl+H to nothing.
Now you can open the MTP device folder directly:
start "" "::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\\\?\usb#vid_0e8d&pid_201d&mi_00#7&1084e14&0&0000#{6ac27878-a6fa-4155-ba85-f98f491d4f33}\<your-local-path-to-folder>"
There is a wait timeout, so the Windows Explorer window might not open immediately.
To generate a shortcut to target folder you can use make_shortcut.vbs script from here: https://github.com/andry81/contools/tree/HEAD/Scripts/Tools/ToolAdaptors/vbs/
For example:
>
make_shortcut.vbs myphonecamera.lnk "shell:::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\\\?\usb#vid_0e8d&pid_201d&mi_00#7&1084e14&0&0000#{6ac27878-a6fa-4155-ba85-f98f491d4f33}\SD-card Samsung\DCIM\Camera
Now you can click myphonecamera.lnk to open the folder or use the Windows Explorer:
>
explorer myphonecamera.lnk
Instead of using Computer which is not a device name, try to use \\?\ or \\.\ which both refer to the local computer.

smb (windows share links) open protocol change

Is it possible to instruct my windows 8.1 machine to open links like these:
smb://c:\path to some folder\
in windows explorer?
Right now, Internet Explorer automatically comes up in response to a request to open smb:// link and says No apps are installed for this type of link (smb) - [Look for an app in the Store]
(The reason I have this problem is because I use mediawiki on my machine and have links to folders and files on some pages. I'd like to be able to click them from any computer on my network and be able to see the file/folder right away).
Many thanks.
Suppose you have a link like:
smb://a.b.com/public/
In windows you can open that in the file explorer this way:
\\a.b.com\public\

How can we make a ftp link open in windows explorer on Windows?

Been trying to find a way to do this for a while.
Opening a link in an windows explorer window instead of a browser.
For example using this link : ftp://username:pass#ftp.domain.com:80
And opening it in Windows Explorer.
Is it possible to dictate how windows should react when clicking on that link in a email ?
Thank you Fabian H!
Your solution works fine for me :-)
I made just a small change to your code, infact I wrote:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\IE.FTP\shell\open\command]
#="C:\\Windows\explorer.exe" %1
Instead of:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\IE.FTP\shell\open\command]
#="C:\\Windows\\explorer.exe %1"
This second one didn't work for me :-(
But now I can finally enjoy using explorer.exe as the default FTP Client!!
PS:
Tested on WIndows 7
Save these lines in a file with a file name ending .reg and double klick the file:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\IE.FTP\shell\open\command]
#="C:\\Windows\\explorer.exe %1"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\IE.FTP\shell\open\ddeexec\Application]
#="Explorer"
Tested on WIndows 8.1 64bit.
Thanks to Perneel for his link.
The Windows registry keys shown before didn't work for me, but this works:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\FTP
Use Web Based FTP = "yes"
Just change value to "no".
(Windows 7 Pro x64)
I was fumbling around looking for how to do this and I ultimately decided to go with the "Add Network Location" wizard method as described here by "nhinkle".
However after doing so, I got a link that generated this shortcut:
ftp://MYFTP_LOGINID#FTPADDRESS/Some/Folder/Navigation/&Stuff/
More what it actually looks like:
ftp://123445_65432#78.13.223.184/root/main/servers/current/
Then was prompted for my login credentials, and thats it. Does not open in Chrome and I just did Send To > Desktop (shortcut) and moved that shortcut to the folder I wanted it in. Now I can open the FTP location from explorer by hitting the link instead of typing the address into the address bar, and it is not opening up in any internet browsers.
I only have one ftp account, dont know much about any background magic that the wizard may have done regarding registry/etc, and I feel like deleting the shortcut wont really undo any of that if it did happen, so if someone could test this and confirm whether or not it works, that'd be great.
Just my 2c :)
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\ftp\UserChoice
Check it out, i got the above answer working by deleting this entry
For regularly used FTP sites, if you don't want to make registry edits, create a shortcut using the following format and your site will open in Windows Explorer.
%windir%\explorer.exe ftp://

Can't edit the host file

I've been trying to edit my host file for a while now and I keep failing.
I tried to open notepad as administrator and then click File --> Open and choosing the host file but I get this error message:
hosts
You don't have permission to open this file.
Contact the file owner or an administrator to obtain permission.
I tried notepad++ as well (as administrator) but I couldn't even get to the file with it (it doesn't show the etc folder in drivers).
I also tried to check my "User Account Control Settings" but it was already on the lowest level (never notify).
While looking online for a solution I've noticed more people having the same problem but I couldn't find a solution that worked for me.
I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
You have to run notepad++ (or your favorite text editor) as an administrator. Right click notepad++ and it should display an option to run it as admin. Once open, locate the hosts file and open it with notepad++.
Windows hosts file location: c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc
Note: copy and paste the above url in the file-explorer when opening a file within notepad++ instead of locating it manually as some directories are hidden.
If the above doesn't work, Windows 10, 8 sometimes requires you to first turn off your antivirus.
If you require editing the hosts file often, you could look into third-party freeware tools to aid you. [1][2]
This works:
For Windows 7 and Windows Vista
Click Start -> All Programs -> Accessories.
Right click on Notepad and select Run as administrator.
Click Continue on the "Windows needs your permission" UAC window.
When Notepad opens Click File -> Open.
In the filename field type the file location, i.e.:
C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts
Click Open.
Make the necessary changes to the hosts file.
Click File -> Save to save your changes.
In my case I could open the file (and Notepad++ was running as admin) however I could not edit it: I could neither type some text, nor delete anything - no popups, no warnings - it looked like keyboard is not working.
I copied the hosts file in the same location, deleted the original hosts file and renamed the new one to hosts. After that I was able to edit the file. I am guessing this should be some permission issue.
OS - windows 7
But first of all you have to do temporally disable your virus guard.
Dissable your antivirus and open notepad.exe with run as administrator edit your host file and save this.
'Run as admin' not enough in windows 8. Set 'modify' access also not enough if you have antivirus
So you need
1) Disable antivirus
2) Set 'modify' access for all applications
3) Modify 'hosts' file
4) Revert 1-2 steps
OK I got it! I had to right click the file, go to Properties, Security tab and click Edit.
Then I took ownership for the file and I had the ability to edit the file's permissions.
On windows 8 running notepad as administrator wasn't enough for me to edit this file. When I tried to open the file from within an administrator session of notepad the etc directory was empty. I changing explorer to show hidden files and extensions, but that only helped in explorer. To edit this with notepad I needed to modify the security settings on the file so that all users and all applications could write to the file. After I finished my changes I set the file back to read only and execute for all applications and users.
there are two notepad.exe in x64 windows,
you must use full path c:\windows\system2\notepad.exe ,this one is 64 bit version,
only type notepad whithout path may be launch 32 bit notepad.
(c:\windows\syswow64\notepad.exe)
"Run as administrator" just let you enforce launch 64 bit notepad.exe
using 32 bit software to edit c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
the x64 system will automatic redirect to c:\windows\syswow64\drivers\etc
and there is no hosts file.
the GUI stiil display current folder is c:\windows\system32
but the real folder is c:\windows\syswow64
I had the same problem. After opening the notepad as an Administrator and editing hosts file, I could not save it (denied access). I could not even change file's permissions. What worked for me was copying the file elsewhere, editing there, and then overwriting the original through Command Prompt opened as Administrator. I didn't have to turn off antivirus program.
To open the Command Prompt as administrator, press windows+X and select that option from the menu.
Than, type: mv path-to-the-copy-of-hosts-file\hosts c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
I just needed to uncheck "read only" property to allow modify that file.

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