How do I register a custom URL protocol in Windows?

Question

How do I register a custom protocol with Windows so that when clicking a link in an email or on a web page my application is opened and the parameters from the URL are passed to it?

Answer 1

1. Go to Start then in Find type regedit -> it should open Registry editor

2. Click Right Mouse on HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT then New -> Key

3. In the Key give the lowercase name by which you want urls to be called (in my case it will be testus://sdfsdfsdf) then Click Right Mouse on testus -> then New -> String Value and add URL protocol without value.

4. Then add more entries like you did with protocol ( Right Mouse New -> Key ) and create hierarchy like testus -> shell -> open -> command and inside command change (Default) to the path where .exe you want to launch is, if you want to pass parameters to your exe then wrap path to exe in "" and add "%1" to look like: "c:\testing\test.exe" "%1"

5. To test if it works go to Internet Explorer (not Chrome or Firefox) and enter testus:have_you_seen_this_man this should fire your .exe (give you some prompts that you want to do this - say Yes) and pass into args testus://have_you_seen_this_man.

Here's sample console app to test:

using System;

namespace Testing
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            if (args!= null && args.Length > 0)
            Console.WriteLine(args[0]);
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

Hope this saves you some time.