c++ ShellExecute not working

Question

I am working on a c++ program that is supposed to launch internet explorer and display a local html file on Windows 7. I am trying to use ShellExecute, but it doesn't work. I googled around, but could not find an answer that worked. Here is the code:

ShellExecute(NULL, "open", "start iexplore %userprofile%\\Desktop\\html_files\\file.hml", NULL, NULL, SW_SHOWDEFAULT);

I copied the command into a system() call just to see if it would work, and it did. Here is the system() call I tried:

system("start iexplore %userprofile%\\Desktop\\html_files\\file.html");

Since the system call worked, its clearly a problem with ShellExecute. Basically, Internet Explorer does not come up. Everything compiles correctly, though. Any ideas?

Answer 1

The paths of the user's shell folders, including the Desktop, can be customized by the user, so %userprofile\desktop is not guaranteed to be the correct path on all systems. The correct way to get the user's actual Desktop path is to use SHGetFolderPath(CSIDL_DESKTOPDIRECTORY) or SHGetKnownFolderPath(FOLDERID_Desktop).

You do not need to know the path to iexplorer.exe, Windows known how to find it. So just specify "iexplorer.exe" by itself as the lpFile parameter and the HTML filename as the lpParameter parameter:

ShellExecute(NULL, "open", "iexplore.exe", "full path to\\file.hml", NULL, SW_SHOWDEFAULT);

With that said, this is very IE-specific. If you want to load the file in the user's default HTML browser/viewer, set the lpVerb parameter to NULL and the HTML file as the lpFile parameter:

ShellExecute(NULL, NULL, "full path to\\file.hml", NULL, NULL, SW_SHOWDEFAULT);

This is the same as if the user had double-clicked on the file in Windows Explorer.

Answer 2

I dont think IE will recognize environment variables in URI's. In fact % have special meaning.

Something like this should work:

#include <windows.h>

int main()
{
     ShellExecute(NULL, "open",
                  "C:\\progra~1\\intern~1\\iexplore.exe",
                  "file:///C:/Users/UserName/Desktop/html_files/file.html",
                  "",
                  SW_MAXIMIZE); 
     return 0;
}

Another way, obtain the %userprofile% enviroment variable value and concat your URI:

#if (_MSC_VER >= 1400) 
#pragma warning(push)
#pragma warning(disable: 4996)    // Disabling deprecation... bad...
#endif 

#include <windows.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main()
{
     std::string uri = std::string("file:///") + getenv("USERPROFILE") + "/Desktop/html_files/file.txt";

     ShellExecute(NULL, "open",
                  "C:\\progra~1\\intern~1\\iexplore.exe",
                  uri.c_str(),
                  "",
                  SW_MAXIMIZE); 

     return 0;
}

Im disabling warnings here, but you should use _dupenv_s instead of getenv.

Good luck.