Is it possible to run an .exe or .bat file on 'onclick' in HTML

Is it possible to run bat/executable file using html5 button event? In IE its achievable using Shell object if I am not wrong.



Here's what I did. I wanted a HTML page setup on our network so I wouldn't have to navigate to various folders to install or upgrade our apps. So what I did was setup a .bat file on our "shared" drive that everyone has access to, in that .bat file I had this code:

start /d "\\server\Software\" setup.exe

The HTML code was:

<input type="button" value="Launch Installer" onclick="window.open('file:///S:Test/Test.bat')" />

(make sure your slashes are correct, I had them the other way and it didn't work)

I preferred to launch the EXE directly but that wasn't possible, but the .bat file allowed me around that. Wish it worked in FF or Chrome, but only IE.



It is possible when the page itself is opened via a file:/// path.

<button onclick="window.open('file:///C:/Windows/notepad.exe')">
    Launch notepad
</button>

However, the moment you put it on a webserver (even if you access it via http://localhost/), you will get an error:

Error: Access to 'file:///C:/Windows/notepad.exe' from script denied



This allows to "download" notepad.exe, not run it. Firefox 31, Windows 7

You can not run/execute an .exe file that is in the users local machine or through a site. The user must first download the exe file and then run the executable file.
So there is no possible way

The following code works only when the EXE is Present in the User's Machine.

<a href = "C:\folder_name\program.exe">