Windows 10 custom HTTP URL Redirector
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Caiaphas McCain
1
Reputation point
I wrote a shell app that accepts URLs as arguments and forwards them to an appropriate program.
^This opens FreeTube to that video address.
^This is redirected to a web browser
My app works when I give it addresses as arguments in the shell, but not when links in non-browser programs are clicked (like Signal, Discord, or IRC clients),
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/default-programs
^I've followed this guide and carefully set the appropriate value in the registry hive, but my app is not showing in the default apps list to set as the new default browser.
What specifically will add a program to the browsers list?
I also tried calling SHChangeNotify with the SHCNE_ASSOCCHANGED flag from within the app, but no notification or change occurred.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/shlobj_core/nf-shlobj_core-shchangenotify
Here are the registry changes I've made:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RegisteredApplications]
"XenDirect_C"="Software\Gambit_Software\XenDirect_C\Capabilities"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Gambit_Software]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Gambit_Software\XenDirect_C]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Gambit_Software\XenDirect_C\Capabilities]
"ApplicationName"="XenDirect_C"
"ApplicationDescription"="Allows Link Redirecting"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Gambit_Software\XenDirect_C\Capabilities\Startmenu]
"StartmenuInternet"="\"%userprofile%\DEVOPS\#Current\XenDirect_C\x64\Release\XenDirect_C.exe\""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Gambit_Software\XenDirect_C\Capabilities\UrlAssociations]
"http"="XenDirect_C"
"https"="XenDirect_C"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Gambit_Software\XenDirect_C\shell]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Gambit_Software\XenDirect_C\shell\open]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Gambit_Software\XenDirect_C\shell\open\command]
@="%userprofile%\DEVOPS\#Current\XenDirect_C\x64\Release\XenDirect_C.exe"
Windows development | Windows API - Win32
Windows for business | Windows Client for IT Pros | User experience | Other
Developer technologies | C++
Developer technologies | C++
A high-level, general-purpose programming language, created as an extension of the C programming language, that has object-oriented, generic, and functional features in addition to facilities for low-level memory manipulation.
{count} votes
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Junjie Zhu - MSFT 21,731 Reputation points2022-11-07T09:33:38.763+00:00 Hi @Caiaphas McCain ,
Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!To further troubleshoot this problem, I would appreciate your help to collect the following information.
- Could you show how you call
SHChangeNotify? - If you close your shell app, will Discord open normally after clicking the Discord link?
Thank you
Junjie - Could you show how you call
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Caiaphas McCain 1 Reputation point
2022-11-08T04:25:19.287+00:00 For the record, all my app does is take URL strings as arguments, and then executes another program with the argument passed on.
Which other program is executed, is determined by a rule, like "YouTube links to FreeTube.exe".
SHChangeNotify( SHCNE_ASSOCCHANGED, SHCNF_IDLIST, NULL, NULL );^This is how I called SHChangeNotify. I ran this in the same app I that I added to the Registry:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Gambit_Software\XenDirect_C]Discord works normally, my app does not intercept anything. I don't want to attempt DLL injection unless soft configuration is impossible.
I only have one core issue, this is the only thing that matters, how do I add an executable to this list for setting Default Web Browser?
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