How to open all local files in external programs, like from Windows Explorer?

[Ainson]

I managed to open local files like PDFs from a speed dial in an external viewer (Sumatra), thanks to the suggestions here:

#36

..but how to open other files in external programs from dials, like for example Autohotkey scripts?

If I try to open an autohotkey (.ahk) file from a dial now, it just opens like a text file in Firefox for viewing, but I want it to run, like it was started from explorer.

I've set ahk files to open using autohotkey in Firefox - settings - applications, so that if I download one from the internet, it will run, but it won't from a speed dial like I said.

Any ideas?

[Juraj-Masiar]

Sadly, I have no idea :(
This is not exactly something that my addon can do.
Even the existing workaround only enables Firefox to process the click on a link that points to a filesystem, it's not that my speed dial would try to "open" the file, it really is only a standard HMTL anchor link.

But I wonder, would it work in a Chromium browser?
The workaround for enabling access to local files is different in Chrome though:
https://github.com/fastaddons/GroupSpeedDial/wiki/Opening-local-.HTML-pages-stored-on-drive

[Ainson]

As I thought. It was a long shot.

I guess it's more of a Firefox issue.

I wouldn't use Chrome.

Thanks anyway

[Juraj-Masiar]

I've tried to ask my work AI for a workaround and it gave a nice idea using "Custom URL protocol".
I think I've read about these some years ago, so maybe it's worth investigating.

The chat doesn't have a share button so I have only a screenshot:

[Ainson]

I got it working using the following but had to make a binding and registry entry for each autohotkey script, and that's not ideal. (ie. ahk1, ahk2, ahk2 etc)

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ahk1]
@="URL:AHKTEST Protocol"
"URL Protocol"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ahk1\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ahk1\shell\open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ahk1\shell\open\command]
@=""C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\AutoHotkey.exe" "C:\MyPath\test.ahk" "%1""

Then in the dial I put: ahk1://test

There should really be a way to register ahk files to open with autohotkey.exe as a rule. I will look some more.

Basically I want to use GSD as a launcher.

[Juraj-Masiar]

Thank you for the update!

Making my speed dial a launcher is actually on my todo list for quite some time:

That was the time when I discovered the custom protocols which would allow that even without a companion app.
I wish I had more time to implement everything on my todo list...