How to use Browser Call

GETTING STARTED

Browser Call is a standalone application designed to open an 
application or a file (with an associated application/viewer 
on the end user's system).  It also allows for command line 
parameters to be sent to the application. 

Although it was designed to solve the problem of opening html pages
from autorun.inf files, it will open any application and allow for 
the sending of parameters to the application. If you are sending 
more than one parameter to the application, just include them all 
in the second parameter of Browser Call. It will also allow for the 
launching of any file in its default viewer by using the single 
parameter method (this will only work if there is an application 
associated with the file extension on the user's system).

There is also an internal function to replace a shortcut for the 
path where the invoked version of browsercall.exe resides (usually 
the root of the cd when used with autorun.inf files). 

The shortcut is CDREPLACE. This must be typed in all capital letters. 
As it automatically checks to ensure that the path returned includes 
the directory slash, do not include that in your parameters:
correct: CDREPLACEindex.html
incorrect:CDREPLACE\index.html 


USING BROWSER CALL TO LAUNCH AN HTML PAGE FROM AN AUTORUN.INF FILE

Browser Call accepts either one or two parameters. If you are sending 
two parameters, you must separate the two parameters with an ampersand 
(&).
Example:
paramOne&paramTwo 

Although all of these examples assume Browser Call is named 
browsercall.exe, feel free to rename browsercall.exe to a 
different name. Just change the default name to the new name 
in the examples. 

The single parameter method to open an HTML file requires that an 
application is associated with the HTML file type on the end user's 
system:
open=browsercall.exe fileName 

To open an html file called index.html in the root of your cd, you 
can have this as your open command in autorun.inf:
open=browsercall.exe index.html

This would open the html page in the default viewer. 

(Warning! You have no control over what the default viewer is. 
It could be any browser, html editor or even notepad. It is also 
possible that no viewer is specified on the user's system.) 

The two parameter method to open an html file requires that you 
select from the possible browsers that the user could have 
installed on their system and also requires that the user has 
installed the browser correctly. 

These examples use the shortcut names for the the two most popular 
browsers. The shortcut name for Internet Explorer is iexplore and 
the shortcut name for Netscape is netscape. 

The correct format for the two parameter method is:
open=browsercall.exe browserShortName&fullPathToHTMLPage 

You will need to use the CDREPLACE method to create the path. 

So, to open an html file called index.html in the root of your cd 
with the browser you have selected, you can have this as your open 
command in autorun.inf:
open=browsercall.exe iexplore&CDREPLACEindex.html
or
open=browsercall.exe netscape&CDREPLACEindex.html


This will open the page in the browser specified if the browser is 
properly installed on the end user's system. 

Note: before this becomes a subFAQ of this FAQ, you can launch 
Internet Explorer in kiosk (fullscreen) mode by including the 
-k command line switch before the path to the web page. 
open=browsercall.exe iexplore&-k CDREPLACEindex.html

As you can see, this method does not provide any fallback should the 
user not have the browser you have selected installed on their system.