How do I make a file:// hyperlink that works in both IE and Firefox?

Question

In my documentation web pages, I often need to provide links to locations, files and applications (.xbap) stored on the intranet.

In IE, this works fine with URLs formatted like this:

<a href="file://///company.org/ProjectA/StatsReport">Go to folder</a>
<a href="file://///company.org/ProjectA/Readme.txt">Download file</a>
<a href="file://///company.org/ProjectA/Dashboard.xbap">Run xbap</a>

These links all work fine under IE, but in Firefox they don't.

Does anyone know how I can format the above links to work both in IE and Firefox?

Edit The above link actually work if I put them in a local file. They stop working only in Firefox when they are part of a html file on the network (not on my machine). There must be some kind of security setting in Firefox that prevents file:/// links from working coming from external content?

Answer 1

just use

file:///

works in IE, Firefox and Chrome as far as I can tell.

see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa767731(VS.85).aspx for more info

Answer 2

file Protocol
Opens a file on a local or network drive.

Syntax

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 file:///sDrives[|sFile]
Tokens 

sDrives
Specifies the local or network drive.

sFile
Optional. Specifies the file to open. If sFile is omitted and the account accessing the drive has permission to browse the directory, a list of accessible files and directories is displayed.

Remarks

The file protocol and sDrives parameter can be omitted and substituted with just the command line representation of the drive letter and file location. For example, to browse the My Documents directory, the file protocol can be specified as file:///C|/My Documents/ or as C:\My Documents. In addition, a single '\' is equivalent to specifying the root directory on the primary local drive. On most computers, this is C:.

Available as of Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 or later.

Note Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 (SP1) no longer allows browsing a local machine from the Internet zone. For instance, if an Internet site contains a link to a local file, Internet Explorer 6 SP1 displays a blank page when a user clicks on the link. Previous versions of Windows Internet Explorer followed the link to the local file.

Example

The following sample demonstrates four ways to use the File protocol.

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//Specifying a drive and a file name. 

file:///C|/My Documents/ALetter.html

//Specifying only a drive and a path to browse the directory. 

file:///C|/My Documents/

//Specifying a drive and a directory using the command line representation of the directory location. 

C:\My Documents\

//Specifying only the directory on the local primary drive. 

\My Documents\

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa767731