Can I have windows prompt me which browser to use for each link I click?

I would like to set up Windows so that it always asks which browser to use when it opens links. I use different browsers for different purposes on my computer, and no single browser should be considered my "default".

I know firefox has the "IE Tab Plus" plugin, which would probably work in most cases--but sometimes I want links to open in Chrome or in an actual IE window.

EDIT: It might be ok if the page loads in a default browser, as long as I can tell that browser to always open pages from site XYZ in an external browser or with another rendering engine.

windows

K Robinson

Posted 2010-07-22T19:48:29.107

Reputation: 897

What are you using to click the links? It is already open in a browser? – steve.lippert – 2010-07-22T19:59:15.853

I am clicking on links from my email client, from pdf documents, from VS2008, and other applications. – K Robinson – 2010-07-23T15:50:31.767

If someone reads this and uses OS X, there are two solutions: Choosy and Highbrow.

– Daniel Beck – 2011-02-20T16:45:14.787

Answers

I use Chrome as my default browser, then have the IE Tab plugin decide whether the URL I click renders with Chrome or IE inside a Chrome tab.

Example: https:// my.intranetsite.com/internal needs to render in IE, but I want everything else to open in chrome. I installed the IE Tab plugin then went to configuration and added an Auto-url of "*my.intranetsite.com*". Now everytime I go to that page, or another page on that domain, it renders in IE by default, but my bookmarks remain consolidated in chrome. There's a similar plugin that will use Firefox to render the page inside chrome, so you can use chrome for all your URL triage needs. :D

(You could probably do the same thing using firefox as your master browser.)

IE Tab Plugin: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/hehijbfgiekmjfkfjpbkbammjbdenadd

Firefox Tab: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/icoloanbecehinobmflpeglknkplbfbm

NOTE: This solution just changes the rendering engine, so you can view and interact with sites that are normally not compatible with chrome, but you can't access things like IE's Developer Tools when in a chrome tab, or Firefox's Firebug when in a FF tab.

Ultimadj

Posted 2010-07-22T19:48:29.107

Reputation: 36

Exactly the kind of solution I needed. Thanks! – K Robinson – 2011-11-10T20:00:01.873

here is a link to FF plug-in i think its just what your looking for.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11097/

djshortbus

Posted 2010-07-22T19:48:29.107

Reputation: 517

Thanks. I was hoping for something that would prompt me before ever loading a webpage, but now that I think about it, I suppose it would be really annoying to have to deal with a popup every time I open a page.

Now, if only this addon would let me decide that certain sites should always open in IE/Chrome... – K Robinson – 2010-07-23T15:53:09.700