How to Find Default Web Browser Using C#

How to find default web browser using C#?

You can look here for an example, but mainly it can be done like this:

internal string GetSystemDefaultBrowser()
{
    string name = string.Empty;
    RegistryKey regKey = null;

    try
    {
        //set the registry key we want to open
        regKey = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey("HTTP\\shell\\open\\command", false);

        //get rid of the enclosing quotes
        name = regKey.GetValue(null).ToString().ToLower().Replace("" + (char)34, "");

        //check to see if the value ends with .exe (this way we can remove any command line arguments)
        if (!name.EndsWith("exe"))
            //get rid of all command line arguments (anything after the .exe must go)
            name = name.Substring(0, name.LastIndexOf(".exe") + 4);

    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        name = string.Format("ERROR: An exception of type: {0} occurred in method: {1} in the following module: {2}", ex.GetType(), ex.TargetSite, this.GetType());
    }
    finally
    {
        //check and see if the key is still open, if so
        //then close it
        if (regKey != null)
            regKey.Close();
    }
    //return the value
    return name;

}

Get the default browser, check if open and send URL

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(startUrl); 

thats all. It checks if default browser is open, run it if not and open the url in new tab and activates it.

How to open in default browser in C#

You can just write

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("http://google.com");

EDIT: The WebBrowser control is an embedded copy of IE.

Therefore, any links inside of it will open in IE.

To change this behavior, you can handle the Navigating event.

C# Launch default browser with a default search query

If you already know how to find the default browser, I would try using Process.Start("browser\path.exe", "\"? searchterm\"");

This seems to work for both IE and Chrome.

How to get icon of default browser in C#?

I have changed the code a bit and here is my version.

using System;
using Microsoft.Win32;
using System.Drawing;

namespace Namespace
{
public static class DefaultSystemBrowser
{
    private static bool initialized = false;
    private static string path = null;

    public static string Path
    {
        get 
        {
            CheckForErrors();

            return path;
        }
    }

    public static Icon Icon
    {
        get {
            CheckForErrors();

            return Icon.ExtractAssociatedIcon( path );
        }
    }

    public static Bitmap Bitmap
    {
        get
        {
            CheckForErrors();

            return Icon.ExtractAssociatedIcon( path ).ToBitmap();
        }
    }

    private static void CheckForErrors()
    {
        if ( !initialized )
            throw new InvalidOperationException( "You can't use DefaultSystemBrowser class before you call Determine()." );
        if ( ErrorMessage != null )
            throw new InvalidOperationException( "You can't use DefaultSystemBrowser class if call to Determine() resulted in error." );
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Null if no error occured, error description otherwise.
    /// </summary>
    public static string ErrorMessage
    {
        get;
        private set;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Finds out all information about current default browser. You can call this method every time you want to find out default browser.
    /// </summary>
    public static void Determine()
    {
        path = String.Empty;
        initialized = true;

        RegistryKey regKey = null;
        ErrorMessage = null;

        try
        {
            //set the registry key we want to open
            regKey = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey( "HTTP\\shell\\open\\command", false );

            //get rid of the enclosing quotes
            path = regKey.GetValue( null ).ToString().ToLower().Replace( "" + (char) 34, "" );

            //check to see if the value ends with .exe (this way we can remove any command line arguments)
            if ( !path.EndsWith( "exe" ) )
                //get rid of all command line arguments (anything after the .exe must go)
                path = path.Substring( 0, path.LastIndexOf( ".exe" ) + 4 );

            initialized = true;
        }
        catch ( Exception ex )
        {
            ErrorMessage = string.Format( "ERROR: An exception of type: {0} occurred in method: {1} in the following module: {2}", ex.GetType(), ex.TargetSite, typeof( DefaultSystemBrowser ) );
        }
        finally
        {
            //check and see if the key is still open, if so
            //then close it
            if ( regKey != null )
                regKey.Close();
        }
    }

}
}

Here is how I am using the code:

        DefaultSystemBrowser.Determine();
        if ( DefaultSystemBrowser.ErrorMessage == null )
        {
            btnOpenInBrowser.Image = DefaultSystemBrowser.Bitmap;
        }
        else
        {
            btnOpenInBrowser.Image = Properties.Resources.firefox_24_noshadow;
        }

How to set the default browser home page (IE) with C#?

Set it in this registry setting:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page

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