Run a .exe file from an ASP intranet page

Because this is what any virus would love to do, a lot of functionality  to do this has been removed. However, if you register a protocol on the local computer  you can call its target directly from your HTML page.

To test this, first double click the myprog.reg file. This will register a protocol that points to notepad.exe. Then open myprog.html in your browser to check if it worked.




 myprog.html
myprog.reg

The test worked fine...

a) What should I edit if say my .exe is in c:\Program Files\winamp\winamp.exe (just an example)?

b) Would I have to run myprog.reg on all computers?

Thanks

To run the program of your choice, change "notepad.exe" inside the myprog.reg file .Unfortunatly, you have to run this once for each workstation.

By installing the protocol a user essentially gives you permission to do the actions you defined. Therefore this is (in my opinion) a decent solution for intranet sites, but unrealistic for public websites.

ok...one last point:  how do I deal with the spaces of my folder name (Arquivos de Programas) in your file. Do I simply replace them with 20%?

Sorry ...I meant %20...

To handle the problem of spaces in a file- or pathname, use the windows default and enclose the full path in quotation marks ("C:\Program Files\winamp\winamp.exe").

The reg file uses default C notation, therefore all special characters should be preceded by a "\".
The entry in the reg file would therefor look like:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MYPROG\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\winamp\\winamp.exe\""

One more tip: its possible to pass parameters to the protocol. Unfortunatly, i could only get that to work with a additional program.

To add a parameter you would change the  regfile to:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MYPROG\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\winamp\\winamp.exe\" %1"

And you would change the HTML file to:

<a href="MYPROG:c:\mymusiclib\nicemusic.mp3"> Play some nice music</a>

The problem is that the value of the parameter includes the protocol name. The result of clicking the link is that winamp.exe is called with "MYPROG:c:\mymusiclib\nicemusic.mp3" as parameter and will not be able to find that file.

I used a workaround by pointing the regfile to my own program, stripping the parameter and launching the final program with the correct data. This way you can allso add some security by encrypting/decrypting the passed data.

IMy solution does not involve having to set up any machine beforhand...