How to redirect to a Website from a Button click in a desktop app WPF?

Question

I've seen everyone recomending the following:

        private void RegisterBtn(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("https://website.com/");
        }

But I get the following error:

"The system cannot find the file specified." System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception"

I want for the button to open a window in the default browser.

Ps: It's a WPF desktop App coded in C#

See here: Have you a browser installed and a default browser is set ? https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/dotnet/csharp/start-internet-browser — Nawed Nabi Zada, Dec 20 '21 at 07:11
@NawedNabiZada Yes, I have Google Chrome as my default browser. But regardless of that, even if the user doesn't have a default browser set, is there a simple way of opening a website from the WPF? — Soulss, Dec 20 '21 at 07:14
This is the simple way. Please read the whole article, it explains why you get that exception — Nawed Nabi Zada, Dec 20 '21 at 07:15
@NawedNabiZada Using the try-catch from this article it says i don't have a browser, but I do. So the only thing I believe it can be is something related to this HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. But even so, this doesn't seems to be a reliable way of opening a website from the WPF, cause even with me having a browser and set to the defaul, it doesn't work... — Soulss, Dec 20 '21 at 07:23
If you type in `https://website.com/` in the Run dialog (Windows+R) or a cmd window: does it work? — Klaus Gütter, Dec 20 '21 at 08:08
If there is no default browser, which application do you want to use for navigating to the URL...? — mm8, Dec 20 '21 at 14:11
@KlausGütter If i type ```explorer "https://www.website.com/"``` in the cmd, it works perfeclty, that's exactly what I wish i could do when the button was clicked. It opens the website with my default browser which is Chrome — Soulss, Dec 20 '21 at 19:11

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 20 '21 at 19:15

So, i've found this answer: How to open a web page from WPF?

And that does exactly what I asked, Idk how to link that answer to this one. But here's the code:

private void RegisterBtn(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    string url = "https://www.website.com";
    System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo("cmd", $"/c start {url}") { CreateNoWindow = true });
}

MD. RAKIB HASAN · Answer 2 · 2021-12-20T09:24:16.430

-1

Try using explorer.exe explicitly:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer.exe", url);
or you can use it in try catch block:

try
{
  System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(url);
}
catch (Win32Exception ex)
{
  System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("IExplore.exe", url);
}

edited Dec 20 '21 at 09:24

answered Dec 20 '21 at 08:33

MD. RAKIB HASAN

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What if there is no IExplorer in the target computer ? – Nawed Nabi Zada Dec 20 '21 at 09:10
You are trying to start a new process in the catch part of a try catch. Please explain how that is a good idea ? – Nawed Nabi Zada Dec 20 '21 at 09:26

How to redirect to a Website from a Button click in a desktop app WPF?

2 Answers2