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BrowseRouter

In Windows, launch a different browser depending on the url.

Usage

    BrowseRouter.exe [-h | --help]
        Show help.

    BrowseRouter.exe
        Automatic registration. 
        Same as --register if not already registered, otherwise --unregister.
        If the app has moved or been renamed, updates the existing registration.

    BrowseRouter.exe [-r | --register]
        Register as a web browser, then open Settings. 
        The user must choose BrowseRouter as the default browser.
        No need to run as admin.

    BrowseRouter.exe [-u | --unregister]
        Unregister as a web browser. 

    BrowseRouter.exe https://example.org/ [...more URLs]
        Launch one or more URLs

Setting Up

  1. Download the latest release.
  2. Open config.ini and customize as desired.
  3. Run BrowseRouter.exe without arguments. No need to run as admin. It will register with Windows as a web browser and open the Settings app. To unregister, run it again. If you later move BrowseRouter to a new folder, or rename the exe, run it again to update the registration.
  4. In the settings app, set BrowseRouter as the default browser.
Settings

Supported Platforms

  • Windows 10, x64 and arm64
  • Windows 11, x64 and arm64

Why?

BrowseRouter becomes your default "browser". When you click a link, it decides which real browser to launch. If you have multiple browsers installed, this is very useful. Example use cases:

  • Compatibility. Some sites you visit work better in specific browsers. You don't care which browser opens, just that the loaded page works.
  • Privacy. For example, one browser is configured to use a proxy while another isn't.
  • Workplace. You access an intranet site through a specific browser while you prefer to use another browser for the rest of the internet.
  • Browser wars. You're tired of browsers jostling to be the default. You're tired of changing the default browser.

Security

BrowseRouter is clean software. I, @nref, rest my reputation on it.

  • The code is open-source and publicly reviewable.
  • I provide pre-built binaries whichs are cryptographically signed with an Extended Validation code-signing certificate. What that means is I regularly navigate a lot of bureaucracy which keeps me legally accountable, and I pay DigiCert a lot of money to verify my identity and purpose. Moreover, you can know that the binaries are from me and not modified by some middleman.
  • If you don't trust the the binaries, you can build them from source.
  • Windows Defender currently reports no problems, as of version 0.8.0.0
  • A small number of malware scanners are reporting false positives as of version 0.8.0.0. I cannot do much about these as the scanners do not provide specific complaints.
  • Possible reasons a scanner may not like BrowseRouter:
    • It adds registry keys. It must in order to register as a browser.
    • It launches other browsers.

Privacy

BrowseRouter contains no tracking, and it makes no network connections of its own whatsoever.

Your system administrator could know which pages you are visiting by auditing process start logs e.g. BrowseRouter.exe http://some-naughty-site.example. They would have the same information for any browser.

Notifications

By default, BrowseRouter will show a desktop notification when it opens a link. You can disable this in config.ini.

Notification

Config

Config is a poor man's INI file:

[notify]
# Show a desktop notification when opening a link. Defaults to true
enabled = true

[log]
# Write log entries to a file. Defaults to false
enabled = true
# Defaults to C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\BrowseRouter\yyyy-MM-dd.log
#file = "C:\Users\<user>\Desktop\BrowseRouter.log"

# Default browser is first in list
# Use `{url}` to specify UWP app browser details
[browsers]
ff = C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
# Open in a new window
#chrome = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --new-window
chrome = C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
edge = C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe

# Url preferences.
# - Only * is treated as a special character (wildcard).
# - Only domains are matched. Don't include protocols e.g. "https://" or paths e.g. "/some/path?query=value"
# - Beware that subdomains don't match automatically, e.g. "youtube.com = chrome" would not launch Chrome for "www.youtube.com"
#   For that reason, you'll often want a leading "*." e.g. "*.youtube.com". 
#   Note: Don't use "*youtube.com" as that would also match e.g. "notyoutube.com".
[urls]
*.google.com = chrome
*.youtube.com = chrome
*.visualstudio.com = edge
*.mozilla.org = ff

# Source preferences.
# Only * is treated as a special character (wildcard).
# Matches on window title of application used to open link.
# Applied regardless of any url preference match.
[sources]
* - Notepad = ff
Slack | Test = chrome
# Default case. Added automatically
# * = whatever

Browsers

  • Browsers must either be in your path or be fully-qualified paths to the executable e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe.
  • Arguments are optional. However, if you provide arguments the path must be enclosed in quotes. For example, "chrome.exe" --new-window
  • If there are no arguments, then the paths do not need to be quoted. For example, chrome.exe will work.

Sources

  • You can optionally specify a "source preference" which matches the window title of the application used to open the link.

    • For example, with this in the previous example config.ini:

      [sources]
*Microsoft Teams* = ff

      Then clicking a link in Microsoft Teams will open the link in Firefox, regardless of the URL.

  • In the case of a conflict between a source preference and a URL preference, the source preference wins.

Urls

There are two ways to specify an Url. You can use simple wildcards or full regular expressions.

Simple wildcards:

microsoft.com = ie
*.microsoft.com = ie
  • Only * is treated as a special character in URL patterns, and matches any characters (equivalent to the .* regex syntax).
  • Only the domain part (or IP address) of a URL is checked.
  • There is no implied wildcard at the start or end, so you must include these if you need them, but be aware that "microsoft.*" will not only match "microsoft.com" and "microsoft.co.uk" but also "microsoft.somethingelse.com".

Full regular expressions:

  /sites\.google\.com/a/myproject.live\.com/ = chrome
  • Full regular expressions are specified by wrapping it in /'s.
  • The domain and path are used in the Url comparison.
  • The regular expression syntax is based on the Microsoft .NET implementation.

Sources

Wildcards and full regular expressions may also be used to match source window titles.

Logs

Logs are stored by default in %localappdata%/BrowseRouter/. For example, if you user name is joe, then the logs will be in C:\Users\joe\AppData\Local\BrowseRouter\.

You can change the directory in the [log] section of config.ini.

You can enable disable or log files by setting enabled = true or false in the [log] section of config.ini. If enabled is missing or doesn't equal true, logs will not be written.

Log entries are also written to the console and can be seen if e.g. if launched from Command Prompt, PowerShell, or Windows Terminal.

Credit

This is a fork of BrowserSelector. That version is no longer mantained. This version carries on the vision, fixing bugs and adding new features.

Support

If you like BrowseRouter, let me know in a discussion. BrowseRouter is just a hobby. You can help support continued development by "buying me a coffee."

Buy Me A Coffee

You can help determine what happens next with BrowseRouter by filling out this survey.