Enable local file links to hard disk, Azure AD & company shared folders, mapped network drive directly in corporate/local host site.
Enable local file links in Chrome or Edge by using the Local Explorer browser extension. It lets you browse and open local file links directly in your web browser.
Local Explorer can enable local file links and open them in associated application when clicked. For examples, click a folder link to open Windows Explorer, click *.docx file to open MS Word, click *.avi file to open Windows Media Player, and so on...
You may use Local Explorer to open local file links & folder links to hard disk drives, Azure Active Directory or company's shared folders, mapped network drive directly in corporate website or local host site.
EXAMPLES
C:\Users\my_user_name\Documents ("My Documents" folders)
\\10.0.0.1\shared\local\folders\files (network drive)
W:\folder\ and W:\folder\file.docx (on webpages they're "file:///W:/folder/" and "file:///W:/folder/file.docx")
NOTES
- Currently it works only on Windows. We built this long ago for our in-house system and it's free. If you find any problem, contact us at [email protected] or click "Send Feedback" button before you post a negative review.
- The extension started to support Unicode since version 2022.11.30. It enables local file links or folders that contains Unicode characters.
- For the people complain about anti-vir warnings, it was a FALSE POSITIVE. We rebuilt our Integration module, see this http://goo.gl/qDNGP7
HOW TO ENABLE LOCAL FILE LINKS
For security reason, webpages are not allowed to read-write local resource on hard drives. To enable local file links, we need an integration between the extension and file system which is an external software runs outside of the browser. Read the simple steps described at http://www.vnprodev.com/browser-extensions/local-explorer-install.php
- Step 1: Add the extension to Chrome/Edge browser and enable "Allow access to file URLs".
- Step 2: Set your default folder in Options page and click Save Settings.
- Step 3: On Windows, download and install this app http://goo.gl/trX9bB for Windows Explorer integration. Run "LocalExplorer-Setup.exe" once then you're ready to go. Now you can open local file links directly while browsing the web.
SILENT INSTALL enterprise command line for the Integration module: LocalExplorer-Setup.exe /S
Latest reviews
- (2024-06-14) Hans-Georg von Detten: Super, danke
- (2024-03-08) Gilles Kodeck: Works perfectly
- (2024-01-30) MOHAMMAD ABDELHALIEM: PERFECT
- (2023-11-13) RutgerAnthony: works like a charm
- (2023-08-15) Man Huen Ng: Not working
- (2023-04-18) JustCreate 3D: Works perfectly. Does what it says it does. Perfect for web based company applications
- (2023-03-19) Markus M: works! finally same functionality as in Firefox for local Office-Files
- (2023-02-16) Angel Zaprianov: It will be great to support Mac OS, use this extension on Windows but my colleagues cannot... ;)
- (2023-01-19) Geek IT Pro (GeekITPro): Thank You!
- (2023-01-19) Stephen Michaud: Should be a built in feature for web browsers
- (2023-01-19) Mark Cousins: does the job we need
- (2022-12-27) 兪佳元: DON'T WORK ON Chrome ver.108.0.5359.125(Official Build) (64 bit) Chrome will change the Link be like "unsafe:localexplorer:\\svr01\TEMP.PDF" according to its security policy. IF YOU REMOVE THE "unsafe:" PART YOU CAN OPEN THE LOCAL LINK. Can you do some update to remove the "unsafe:" part automatically?
- (2022-12-05) Ellen ortveds: Great extension.
- (2022-11-20) Base Lines (Windows 11): This is good, really
- (2022-11-20) salum elias: EXCELENTE¡¡¡¡¡
- (2022-11-15) Adventure: Perfekt!
- (2022-08-31) Laurent PG: Enfin trouvée l'application qu'il me fallait. Dommage qu'il me demande toujours si je veux ouvrir le répertoire.
- (2022-08-30) josh wanner: Not sure if this opens folders within Local Explorer (if it does I can't figure out how to enable it), but right now it's just sending me to File Explorer.
- (2022-05-26) Berkay Güzelbeyoglu: please .MSI extension package required
- (2022-04-29) M. Ros: Terrible !
- (2022-04-11) Sergey Breaker: Works on Android! On Kiwi browser.
- (2022-04-02) Mark: i have installed this chrome extension to google portable. and am trying to move the exe file to the portable drive. but cant figure out how to edit the extension to point to say. E:\PortableApps\GoogleChromePortable\App\extension\ so i would put the exe in that folder and then aim the extension at the exes new location. how could i manage this?
- (2022-02-21) A “Duckson”: ok this work (sort off) if you not going to use unicode charset then this vil work perfectly, however i need to open files with æøå in the names, and unless someone can tell how to makes this do that, then this is not for me, but the install was painless, nice job on that part :-)
- (2021-10-20) Tis Answer: 对中文路径的支持有问题,但这不妨碍我给他五星
- (2021-10-19) Алексей: Unicode!!! Need Unicode, please! (russian name files)
- (2021-07-05) 张义: 对中文的支持有点问题,需要转码一下。
- (2021-06-18) Gersom Uzziel Garcia Muñoz: i don't like it because it is not easy to use
- (2021-06-14) FITVY_Youtube: DUDE, YOU WON'T BELIEVE ME HOW MUCH THIS HELPED ME. MY FILE EXPLORER KEPT HANGING WHEN I SELECTED A FILE, NOW I CAN OPEN THE FILE! TY I was able to disable the file that caused file explorer problems :)
- (2021-06-04) Ian Morrish: Awesome extension. Is there a way with client side javascript to detect if the extension is installed?
- (2021-04-24) Wolf Gaming: hbjyugghgtyg dumb bad app im on chrome os and you say it works on any computer well it DOSENT THIS IS BAD DELETE THIS.!!!!!!!!
- (2021-04-08) Kent Castle: I don't know if it works or not. The instructions omitted a lot of basic setup and usage details. Since I'm not a Chrome nerd, I couldn't even get close to making it work.
- (2021-04-08) 冰霂: A great extension, hope it could support unicode characters in the future.
- (2021-02-24) actionmarco: It somehow works, but I fail to see how it can be really useful. What I was hoping for was to be able to open files from a google spreadsheet (filenames are mentioned in the spreadsheet, path could be added easily), but could not get that to work. Adding the file path as a hyperlink won't do anything, even with adding "localexplorer:" before the rest of the path. If anybody has an idea on this, I would appreciate. So you can only open files from that localexplorer interface that you get to when you push the extension button? How would that be useful? Or am I missing something? I hope so. And also, even from there, I can't open a file that includes Chinese characters in the file name.
- (2021-01-22) Andre Ferreira: COOL
- (2020-11-15) Laurent Balogh: A must have for a local intranet with the Edge Chromium.
- (2020-09-30) Goody Smarts: This really works. Thanks
- (2020-09-19) Glenn Littleford: We use IE as our browser for a intranet application, and depend on its correct use of the file:// link, to open files and folders on the shared network drives. IE is reaching EOL, and Edge ignores the file:// link. This breaks our business software. This Chrome extension works perfectly! Well done to the developers.
- (2020-09-15) Andrey S: Works great, but unicode support is needed wery much
- (2020-07-26) Ronda Siberia: Please support the folder with Russian names!
- (2020-07-18) John Kyle: Oh this is sick! Exactly what I was looking for and it works great. Now I can put links like [My Markdown file]("C:\dir\dir\file.md") in www.dynalist.io and when clicked the file opens in its default app (VS Code for Markdown files on my system.) Thank you SO much, devs!
- (2020-07-06) Adarsh Madrecha: Perfect plugin to improve productivity
- (2020-07-05) Avi Barzilay Perspective: Very efficient and amazing tool...
- (2020-07-04) Frank Ebert: very good extension
- (2020-03-17) Kayleigh Moore: oh my its easy to do it w/out internet just use file explorer built in your os
- (2020-03-11) DEVARAKONDA MURALIDHAR: Very good for me in the pc
- (2020-01-17) F. R.: Would be better if you could limit to given URLs http://localhost -> use the plugin http://my.domain -> use the plugin http://google.com -> default behaviour of chrome
- (2020-01-16) Mirko P: Great Extension but when i click on a link, i see a dialog box saying "Open Local Explorer?" Then i have to choose between 2 buttons, "Open" and "Cancel"! This is terrible, each time confirmation-click. How can i disable this? Do you other guys also have this behaviour? Is this a Chrome thing or a extension thing? I tried everything, all settings i was able to find... no success. On another PC, it works without a Dialog box, no idea why, settings 100% the same!!! Hope anyone can help me out.
- (2019-12-31) Courtney Stearns: Conceptually it is a good idea. Unfortunately, the installation of the Integration Module didn't work for me. I downloaded and installed the Integration Module on my Windows machine (Windows 10 Professional). "Installation complete..." but the configuration screen did not appear and no shortcuts were created. I found the executable in the x86 folder, but that did not load either. Additionally, the documentation for configuring the Integration module - the "one simple step" is in my opinion poorly written and has no functional help for this problem.
- (2019-11-19) Eric Strid: Does anyone know how to get it to work when the user is not an administrator on the computer?
- (2019-11-14) David Young: Crazy constraints on Win file access at one client made this a no brain'er. Love it!