Open a URL into the Default Internet Browser

Written exclusively for VB Center by Marco Cordero.

Start a new project. To the form, add a label as described below.

Place the following in the general declarations area of the form.

#If Win32 Then

Private Declare Function ShellExecute Lib _
"shell32.dll" Alias "ShellExecuteA" _
(ByVal hwnd As Long, _
ByVal lpOperation As String, _
ByVal lpFile As String, _
ByVal lpParameters As String, _
ByVal lpDirectory As String, _
ByVal nShowCmd As Long) As Long

#Else

Private Declare Function ShellExecute Lib _
"shell.dll" _
(ByVal hwnd As Integer, _
ByVal lpOperation As String, _
ByVal lpFile As String, _
ByVal lpParameters As String, _
ByVal lpDirectory As String, _
ByVal nShowCmd As Integer) As Integer

#End If

Private Const SW_SHOWNORMAL = 1

Add the following code to the label.

Private Sub URL_Click()

Dim iret As Long

' open URL into the default internet browser

iret = ShellExecute(Me.hwnd, vbNullString, _
"http://www.microsoft.com", vbNullString, _
"c:\", SW_SHOWNORMAL)

End Sub

Now, press F5 to run the project. If you click the label, it will open the URL "http://www.microsoft.com" into the default Internet browser.

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