How to run an local EXE from Web page (asp.net) like gitHub option (Clone in Desktop)

Question

How to add button in by web application which run an local exe file like github ?

In source code there is an link like href="github-windows://openRepo/https://github.com/tgalal/yowsup"

When i click on that button it prompt like bellow

how to add an functionality like this in my application ? Please help

Answer 1

What you're describing is a "URI Scheme handler". You register that your program listens for SOMETHINGSOMETHING://.

The steps involves placing some information in the registry, which you likely need administrator access for, so a setup program is probably your best option.

The registry information you need to add is this:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
   SOMETHINGSOMETHING
      (Default) = "URL:SOMETHINGSOMETHING Protocol"
      URL Protocol = ""
      DefaultIcon
         (Default) = "Path\To\Your\Executable.exe,1"
      shell
         open
            command
               (Default) = "Path\To\Your\Executable.exe" "%1"

Note that all of this has to be done on the client computer, you cannot force this on the computer from the webpage, other than letting the user download a setup program that will do the work.

Obviously this answer is for Windows, if you need to do similar actions on Linux or OS X then the work to do is similar but the steps involved are different.

You can read more about this on MSDN: Registering an Application to a URI Scheme.