Calling IE from a batch file

Factual Questions
1

At home, I use Opera, and I’ve configured it to allow me to do fun stuff, like type “mw laconic” to launch “http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=laconic”, or “ljf erislover” to go to my livejournal’s friends page. Fun.

I’m trying to emulate that behavior here at work where I use IE by making a batch file that accepts parameters. So I have “mw.bat” and “ljf.bat”. If I have no IE windows open, it works fine. If I do have windows open, though, it hijacks those to go to the page I want.

Is there any way to guarantee it will always open in a new page, and not leave a dangling command prompt window?

2

Add the “-new” switch (sans quotes) to the end ot the command line. This will force IE to open a new window to launch the URL.

3

I can’t seem to find a permutation that works with a new switch. Here’s the file’s one line:


start "F:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" "http://www.livejournal.com/users/%1/friends/"

I can’t get the new switch to work without it also thinking it is part of the URL…

4

Ah, I see what you’re doing. Do this:


start "F:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe -new" "http://www.livejournal.com/users/%1/friends/"

I just tried it with a different URL, to test it, and it does work.

5 



"c:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -new http://www.livejournal.com/users/%1/friends/

I think you can also change in IE --> Tools | Internet Options | Advanced | Uncheck “Reuse Windows for Launching Shortcuts”

6

Great! Got it. Thanks guys.