Right click to open file in localhost

Question

One task that I do all day that is very annoying is working on files and moving them around or adding new files to a folder in my localhost dev server and then I have to go to the browser and navigate to get to the file.

I would assume there has to be a way to be able to add a right click context menu option to "Open File in browser" but to not just open the file in a browser because then it would probably open at the file path to it so my 2 questions

1) Is it possible to add a context menu option using Windows 7 that will alow me to open files in the browser

2) If question 1 is possible, could I then set it to open based off a defined path. Example if the file is located at

E:\Server\htdocs\Labs\javascript\socialbuttons\socialable

And I access the file in the browser at

http://localhost/Labs/javascript/socialbuttons/socialable

it would just need to always replace

E:\Server\htdocs

with...

http://localhost/

And append the rest on and open in browser.

Any help or ideas appreciated

Answer 1

We can accomplish this by editing the Registry and by using AutoHotkey. I called my script OpenAsLocalhost.ahk, and used similar names for my example.

• Compile the following AutoHotkey script:

file = %1%
server = E:\Server\htdocs\
StringReplace, url, file, %server%, http://localhost/
StringReplace, url, url, \, /, All
Run, %url%
ExitApp

• Open the Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
• Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell
• Create a new Key under shell\ named OpenAsLocalhost.
• Set the (Default) value to Open as localhost.
• Create a new Key under OpenAsLocalhost\ called command
• Set the (Default) value to "C:\OpenAsLocalhost.exe" "%1"
• Done!