How to open in default browser in C#

Question

I am designing a small C# application and there is a web browser in it. I currently have all of my defaults on my computer say google chrome is my default browser, yet when I click a link in my application to open in a new window, it opens internet explorer. Is there any way to make these links open in the default browser instead? Or is there something wrong on my computer?

My problem is that I have a webbrowser in the application, so say you go to google and type in "stack overflow" and right click the first link and click "Open in new window" it opens in IE instead of Chrome. Is this something I have coded improperly, or is there a setting not correct on my computer

===EDIT===

This is really annoying. I am already aware that the browser is IE, but I had it working fine before. When I clicked a link it opened in chrome. I was using sharp develop to make the application at that time because I could not get c# express to start up. I did a fresh windows install and since I wasn't too far along in my application, I decided to start over, and now I am having this problem. That is why I am not sure if it is my computer or not. Why would IE start up the whole browser when a link is clicked rather than simply opening the new link in the default browser?

Answer 1

You can just write

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("http://google.com");

EDIT: The WebBrowser control is an embedded copy of IE.
Therefore, any links inside of it will open in IE.

To change this behavior, you can handle the Navigating event.

Answer 2

For those finding this question in dotnet core. I found a solution here

Code:

private void OpenUrl(string url)
{
    try
    {
        Process.Start(url);
    }
    catch
    {
        // hack because of this: https://github.com/dotnet/corefx/issues/10361
        if (RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.Windows))
        {
            url = url.Replace("&", "^&");
            Process.Start(new ProcessStartInfo(url) { UseShellExecute = true });
        }
        else if (RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.Linux))
        {
            Process.Start("xdg-open", url);
        }
        else if (RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.OSX))
        {
            Process.Start("open", url);
        }
        else
        {
            throw;
        }
    }
}

Answer 3

After researching a lot I feel most of the given answer will not work with dotnet core. 1.System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("http://google.com"); -- Will not work with dotnet core

2.It will work but it will block the new window opening in case default browser is chrome

 myProcess.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = true; 
    myProcess.StartInfo.FileName = "http://some.domain.tld/bla";
    myProcess.Start();

Below is the simplest and will work in all the scenarios.

Process.Start("explorer", url);

Answer 4

public static void GoToSite(string url)
{
     System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(url);
}

that should solve your problem

Answer 5

Did you try Processas mentioned here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/system.diagnostics.process.aspx?

You could use

Process myProcess = new Process();

try
{
    // true is the default, but it is important not to set it to false
    myProcess.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = true; 
    myProcess.StartInfo.FileName = "http://some.domain.tld/bla";
    myProcess.Start();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
    Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
}

Answer 6

My default browser is Google Chrome and the accepted answer is giving the following error:

The system cannot find the file specified.

I solved the problem and managed to open an URL with the default browser by using this code:

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer.exe", "http://google.com");

Answer 7

I'm using this in .NET 5, on Windows, with Windows Forms. It works even with other default browsers (such as Firefox):

Process.Start(new ProcessStartInfo { FileName = url, UseShellExecute = true });

Based on this and this.

Answer 8

Try this , old school way ;)

public static void openit(string x)
    {
        System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("cmd", "/C start" + " " + x);
    }

using : openit("www.google.com");

Answer 9

Am I the only one too scared to call System.Diagnostics.Process.Start() on a string I just read off the internet?

        public bool OnBeforeBrowse(IWebBrowser chromiumWebBrowser, IBrowser browser, IFrame frame, IRequest request, bool userGesture, bool isRedirect)
        {
            Request = request;
            string url = Request.Url;
            
            if (Request.TransitionType != TransitionType.LinkClicked)
            {   // We are only changing the behavoir when someone clicks on a link.
                // Let the embedded browser handle this request itself.
                return false;
            }
            else
            {   // The user clicked on a link.  Something like a filter icon, which links to the help for that filter.
                // We open a new window for that request.  This window cannot change.  It is running a JavaScript
                // application that is talking with the C# main program.
                Uri uri = new Uri(url);
                try
                {
                    switch (uri.Scheme)
                    {
                        case "http":
                        case "https":
                            {   // Stack overflow says that this next line is *the* way to open a URL in the
                                // default browser.  I don't trust it.  Seems like a potential security
                                // flaw to read a string from the network then run it from the shell.  This
                                // way I'm at least verifying that it is an http request and will start a
                                // browser.  The Uri object will also verify and sanitize the URL.
                                System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(uri.ToString());
                                break;
                            }
                        case "showdevtools":
                            {
                                WebBrowser.ShowDevTools();
                                break;
                            }
                    }
                }
                catch { }
                // Tell the browser to cancel the navigation.
                return true;
            }
        }

This code was designed to work with CefSharp, but should be easy to adapt.

Answer 10

Take a look at the GeckoFX control.

GeckoFX is an open-source component which makes it easy to embed Mozilla Gecko (Firefox) into any .NET Windows Forms application. Written in clean, fully commented C#, GeckoFX is the perfect replacement for the default Internet Explorer-based WebBrowser control.

Answer 11

This opened the default for me:

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(e.LinkText.ToString());

Answer 12

I tried

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("https://google.com");

which works for most of the cases but I run into an issue having a url which points to a file:

The system cannot find the file specified.

So, I tried this solution, which is working with a little modification:

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer.exe", $"\"{uri}\"");

Without wrapping the url with "", the explorer opens your document folder.

Answer 13

dotnet core throws an error if we use Process.Start(URL). The following code will work in dotnet core. You can add any browser instead of Chrome.

var processes = Process.GetProcessesByName("Chrome");
var path  = processes.FirstOrDefault()?.MainModule?.FileName;
Process.Start(path,  url);

Answer 14

In UWP:

await Launcher.LaunchUriAsync(new Uri("http://google.com"));

Answer 15

Already best given answer imho:

For Windows, I recommend Process.Start(new ProcessStartInfo { FileName = url, UseShellExecute = true }); – Matt Jenkins Apr 12, 2020 at 10:14

Updated to MS recommandation from 2023 found on https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/developer/visualstudio/csharp/language-compilers/start-internet-browser

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(new ProcessStartInfo { FileName = "https://stackoverflow.com/", UseShellExecute = true });

Answer 16

Open dynamically

string addres= "Print/" + Id + ".htm";
           System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, addres));

Answer 17

update the registry with current version of explorer
@"Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION"

public enum BrowserEmulationVersion
{
    Default = 0,
    Version7 = 7000,
    Version8 = 8000,
    Version8Standards = 8888,
    Version9 = 9000,
    Version9Standards = 9999,
    Version10 = 10000,
    Version10Standards = 10001,
    Version11 = 11000,
    Version11Edge = 11001
}

key.SetValue(programName, (int)browserEmulationVersion, RegistryValueKind.DWord);

Answer 18

This works nicely for .NET 5 (Windows):

 ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo {
   FileName = "cmd.exe",
     Arguments = $ "/C start https://stackoverflow.com/",
     WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden,
     CreateNoWindow = true
 };
 Process.Start(psi);

Answer 19

to fix problem with Net 6 i used this code from ChromeLauncher ,default browser will be like it

internal static class ChromeLauncher
{
    private const string ChromeAppKey = @"\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\chrome.exe";

    private static string ChromeAppFileName
    {
        get
        {
            return (string) (Registry.GetValue("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" + ChromeAppKey, "", null) ??
                                Registry.GetValue("HKEY_CURRENT_USER" + ChromeAppKey, "", null));
        }
    }

    public static void OpenLink(string url)
    {
        string chromeAppFileName = ChromeAppFileName;
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(chromeAppFileName))
        {
            throw new Exception("Could not find chrome.exe!");
        }
        Process.Start(chromeAppFileName, url);
    }
}

Answer 20

I'd comment on one of the above answers, but I don't yet have the rep.

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer", "stackoverflow.com");

nearly works, unless the url has a query-string, in which case this code just opens a file explorer window. The key does seem to be the UseShellExecute flag, as given in Alex Vang's answer above (modulo other comments about launching random strings in web browsers).

Answer 21

You can open a link in default browser using cmd command start <link>, this method works for every language that has a function to execute a system command on cmd.exe.

This is the method I use for .NET 6 to execute a system command with redirecting the output & input, also pretty sure it will work on .NET 5 with some modifications.

using System.Diagnostics.Process cmd = new();
cmd.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
cmd.StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
cmd.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
cmd.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
cmd.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
cmd.Start();


cmd.StandardInput.WriteLine("start https://google.com"); 
cmd.StandardInput.Flush();
cmd.StandardInput.Close();
cmd.WaitForExit();