7

We have an internal wiki setup and do a lot of linking to files on internal shares.

We typically use this format (where Share is the name of the server):

<a href="file:///\\share\blah\blah\file.txt">

This works in FireFox (after modifying the userpref.js) and IE.

We've now had a bit of an adoption of Google Chrome. These links do not appear to work in Chrome. I've been unable to find anything about it on the net so far. :/

This is served up on an IIS box (7.0, https). It seems to be that Chrome has some protection like FireFox does and prevents file links from being loaded from a webpage. Does anyone know of any workarounds?

Daemonic
  • 171

8 Answers8

6

How about the Enable local file links extension for file:// links?

Overview

Make it possible to open by click a link to a local file that is disabled by Chrome. In Google Chrome, links to local files are disabled, unlike IE. This extension allows you to open a link to a local file by clicking it.

[Security] A malicious page can not open a local file without permission, because this extension reacts only to the click operation by the user.

[Others] Personal information is not collected / used. Source code is released to GitHub (see "Website" link).

zionyx
  • 779
2

I just downloaded the latest chrome beta and <a href="file:///\\share\blah\blah\file.txt"> works.

kzh
  • 4,473
1

I found a work around. Introducing RightLink: http://www.chromeextensions.org/other/rightlink/

Right click the UNC path to open. You may need to enable the option to open local files (as opposed to paths) in the extension's options.

It works on my intranet.

Brian James
  • 11
0

OK, found a workaround for Chrome.

Go to this link in Chrome. Now when you right click you can open any document.

My link looks like this

file://SERVER/file
Mogget
  • 1,353
stephen
  • 9
0

RightLink works, but is a bad workaround for me because it disables the right-click context menu, which I use all the time.

IETab on the other hand works great. I added several internal sites to its Auto-URL config (e.g. http://somesite/*) and they automatically open in an embedded IE tab. IE (or an IE tab) handles file:// links as expected according to the machine's trust configuration.

Tim Sparkles
  • 260
0

We've found a better solution using the Chrome Extension Local Links: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jllpkdkcdjndhggodimiphkghogcpida

Daemonic
  • 171
0

Try this format:

<a href="file://server/share/blah/blah/file.txt">

This worked for me with the latest Google Chrome Beta in a quick test.

A much simpler solution that would work with any browser/program would be to simply map the share to a drive, and then access it through that.

davr
  • 5,588
-1

Try this extension then. It bypasses Chrome restriction and allows users to open file & folder directly on Chrome. See if it works for you.

Brian H
  • 1