We are creating a new corporate intranet.  We want to be able to click
a link on one of the web pages, and have Windows Explorer open up to
show a specific windows folder on the intranet server.  How can we do
that?  All the users will access the intranet using IE.  The desktops
are running Windows 2000.

Please note that we don't want just to view the folder in a new IE web
page: we can do that.  We want a new window to open up in Windows
Explorer to allow users not only to view files in the folder but also
to use drag and drop to add new ones.

If possible, please provide some working code that we can add to our
web pages to do this.

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Request for Question Clarification by j_philipp-ga on 01 Feb 2003 01:33 PST

Hello Michael2,

The following HTML (document-type "transitional") works:

  <a target="_blank" href="file://pc6/pic/">Open pic</a>

Explanation: "pc6" is the name of the computer in the network, and
"pic" is the name of the shared folder on it.

You say you don't want to open a new Internet Explorer web page. But
actually, using above line, Windows 2000 will automatically switch
from Internet Explorer to Windows Explorer. This means intranet users
can now drag & drop files (provided they have write-access -- if not,
it would be outside of the scope of any program on the client computer
to change this).

The transition between Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer appears
seamless though, so you might want to explain to the intranet users
(like on the page linking to the folder) that it will open in Windows
Explorer -- and that they can turn on the "Folder"-toolbar on the left
using the "View"-menu.

If this is somehow not what you wanted, please clarify; if it is, I'd
be happy to post this as an answer.

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Clarification of Question by michael2-ga on 01 Feb 2003 02:28 PST

Yes, that sound good.  I'll try it out on Monday.

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Clarification of Question by michael2-ga on 03 Feb 2003 04:27 PST

We've tried that on the Intranet and it worked fine.  Please post as
the official answer.

Hello Michael2, 

Thank you for giving me the chance to repost this in the official answer spot!

----

The following HTML (document-type "transitional") works: 
 
  <a target="_blank" href="file://pc6/pic/">Open pic</a> 
 
Explanation: "pc6" is the name of the computer in the network, and
"pic" is the name of the shared folder on it.
 
You say you don't want to open a new Internet Explorer web page. But
actually, using above line, Windows 2000 will automatically switch
from Internet Explorer to Windows Explorer. This means intranet users
can now drag & drop files (provided they have write-access -- if not,
it would be outside of the scope of any program on the client computer
to change this).
 
The transition between Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer appears
seamless though, so you might want to explain to the intranet users
(like on the page linking to the folder) that it will open in Windows
Explorer -- and that they can turn on the "Folder"-toolbar on the left
using the "View"-menu.

----

Thanks again, and good luck creating your corporate intranet!


Search strategy:
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Additional references:

W3C - Links in HTML Documents
http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/links.html

Thanks for the very fast answer!