User preferences are very important nowadays and if you have a shortcut or want to open an URL for the user you might as well check what is the preferred browser that he uses. This information can be easily found in:
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\https\UserChoice
And from this information you can easily create a batch file that will take the URL desired and open it in the user’s preferred browser:
@echo off cls if x%1x==xx goto END set zBrowser="%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" reg.exe QUERY HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\https\UserChoice /v ProgID > "%Temp%\defbrowser.txt" If %ERRORLEVEL%==0 ( findstr.exe /I /C:"EDGE" "%Temp%\defbrowser.txt" If %ERRORLEVEL%==0 ( if EXIST "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe" ( set zBrowser="%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe" goto STARTURL ) ELSE ( goto UNKNOWN ) ) findstr.exe /I /C:"CHROME" "%Temp%\defbrowser.txt" If %ERRORLEVEL%==0 ( if EXIST "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" ( set zBrowser="%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" goto STARTURL ) ELSE ( goto UNKNOWN ) ) findstr.exe /I /C:"FIREFOX" "%Temp%\defbrowser.txt" If %ERRORLEVEL%==0 ( if EXIST "%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" ( set zBrowser="%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" goto STARTURL ) ELSE ( goto UNKNOWN ) ) ) :STARTURL start %zBrowser% %1 goto END :UNKNOWN start %zBrowser% %1 :END exit
This can be used as OpenURL.cmd www.google.ro.
The file can be downloaded here: