How do I create a shortcut that launches a non-default-browser to a website

Question

I want to be able to double click it and it runs the correct (non default) browser and opens my preferred website?

Why would you want to do this rather than create a bookmark?
I want this to sit on my desktop. I'm using windows 7 - so typically a url will open with IE, but I want to specify that it open with a diff browser, something you can't do with Windows7 built in url creator. This used to be done in WindowsXP and earlier also
Not such a strange nor bad question. I do this with a simple bat-file as I showed in my answer below. I use Firefox for everything except my banking that demands IE. So I have a bank.bat that launches IE and takes me to the correct site.

Ryan · Answer 1 · 2012-10-01 16:00:10Z

up vote 5 down vote

Create a new shortcut (Right-click->New->Shortcut)
Point the shortcut to the executable of your browser of choice ("C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Firefox\firefox.exe")
Add the URL you wish to go to after the executable ("http://kongregate.com")
Name the shortcut whatever you want.
Profit.

answered Oct 1 '12 at 16:00

Ryan
93314

2

@VISQL - The answer clearly tells you how and when to select what browser you want to use for that particular url. – Nifle Oct 1 '12 at 16:40

ekaj · Answer 2 · 2012-10-01 15:49:21Z

up vote 2 down vote

An alternative is to create a shortcut on your desktop (Right click > New > Shortcut) and point it at a website.

answered Oct 1 '12 at 15:49

ekaj
1,7951729

Thanks. That doesn't allow me to choose the browser though, such as with other user-created files. I don't want it to open with IE. However, that is the only option when creating a Windows shortcut in which a url is placed. – VISQL Oct 1 '12 at 15:54

Ryan · Answer 3 · 2012-10-01 16:39:13Z

up vote 2 down vote

If you insist on doing this with an HTML file, you could put this in your file:

<html>
  <head>
    <meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="0;url=http://www.example.com">
  </head>
  <body>
  </body>
</html>

That will automatically redirect to the linked URL. Select the browser by right-clicking and selecting "Open with..." and picking the browser you want to use.

edited Oct 1 '12 at 16:39

answered Oct 1 '12 at 16:11

Ryan
93314

And how will this open in the correct browser? – Nifle Oct 1 '12 at 16:13

1

@Nifle I have no idea. But he keeps insisting that this must be done with an HTML file. Your answer and my previous answer are both perfectly good ways to do this, but he seems opposed to anything not done in HTML. – Ryan Oct 1 '12 at 16:14

Nifle · Answer 4 · 2012-10-01 16:07:07Z

I suggest you create a simple bat file.

Put this in a textfile on your desktop and then rename it to amazon-with-chrome.bat or something.

start C:\Users\YOUR-WINDOWS-USER-NAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe http://www.amazon.com

It launches chrome.exe and loads amazon.com you. You need to replace http://www.amazon.com and YOUR-WINDOWS-USER-NAME at a minimum.
If you want to use another browser (or if you have chrome installed somewhere else) you have to change the path too.