How Can We Open a Local Folder by Clicking a Link?

How to Open a Local Folder by Clicking a Link

Customizing Link Behavior

Standard HTML links are designed to navigate to web pages, not to open local folders. However, by leveraging some tricks, we can make links launch folder views.

Downloadable Link Approach

Background:

The operating system dictates how URLs are handled, and Windows has two types of URL shortcuts:

• .URL files (text-based)
• .LNK files (binary-based)

Solution:

To open a local folder, we will create a downloadable .URL file with the following format:

<code class="text">[InternetShortcut]
URL=file:///D:/</code>

Implementation:

1. Add .URL to Server MIME Types: Configure your web server (e.g., IIS) to accept .URL files as application/internet-shortcut.
2. Dynamically Generate .URL File: Create a page handler or script that generates the .URL file on the fly.
3. Provide Link to .URL File: Include a link to the script or to the pre-generated .URL file in your HTML:

<code class="html"><a href="URIShortcut.url">Open Folder</a></code>

Browser Behavior

• Chrome: Downloads the .URL file, then prompts the user to open it or save it. Users can choose to "Always open files of this type" to streamline the process.
• Firefox: Similar to Chrome, but does not offer the option to always open .URL files.
• Internet Explorer: Opens the folder directly without prompting.

Conclusion

By generating and providing downloadable .URL files for local folders, we can simulate folder opening functionality in HTML links. This solution works across major browsers, offering varying user experiences depending on the browser used.

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