42015 - [RFE] Ability to run .exe files from webpages

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 106094

(Core Graveyard :: File Handling, enhancement)

Description

[Ian Tommins ('thelem')]

When you click on an exe file in Internet Explorer you are presented with a 
dialog asking you if you want to open the file or save it to disk, I would like 
similar functionallity added to Mozilla.

Comment 1

[Blake Ross]

RFE, so confirming (was unable to find a dup).   This just requires saving the 
file to a temporary folder and then executing it from there upon completion; 
it's not really "running it from the site" as IE makes it seem.  I don't know 
who would implement this, though. networking, maybe?

Comment 2

[Jesse Ruderman]

so the "run" option would replace "pick app..." for certain types of files?

Comment 3

[Ian Tommins ('thelem')]

Yes, but it is important that the file is run from its existing location.

I intend this mainly for magazine coverdisks which are increasingly using HTML. 
When they link to setup files these need to be run from the CD, as they are 
often large and may have relational links to other files on the CD.

A copy-and-run solution would be better than nothing, however. Especially if it 
would be trivial to implement.

Comment 4

[Doron Rosenberg (IBM)]

XP Apps?

Comment 5

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

over to Networking for initial look.  Feel free to bounce it right back if this 
isnt a networking issue.  

Comment 6

[Gagan]

ben is the one doing the UI but I think some of the recent changes with Helper 
Apps issues will resolve this. 

Comment 7

[Blake Ross]

I think mscott said the new helper app dialog would have a run option a la IE.

Comment 8

[Ian Tommins ('thelem')]

Tested with Netscape 6 PR3 and there was no such option. I set the helper app to 
c:/winnt/explorer.exe and got an error about a missing dll. I am running Win2k.

Comment 9

[Ben Goodger (use ben at mozilla dot org for email)]

copying hyatt as I know he was interested in this. 

Comment 10

[Jesse Ruderman]

*** Bug 60814 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 11

[Grey Hodge (jX)]

As talked about in bug 60814, this is an intersting feature. I'm currently 
working on it in my spare time. A few things though.

1) I don't feel this is a networking issue at all. The approach I'm taking is to 
hook into the MIME type detection, or even just the file's extention.

2) To 'Lemming'. There is no such thing as "run from current location" in 
reality. What happens is the file is downloaded to the temp directory, and then 
executed. This is what IE really does, and it's the only real way to do it 
outside of creating a native app to DL the data to RAM and execute it. You can't 
stream executable files. Well, maybe there could be a way devised to do it, but 
it doesn't happen in the same manner as media files.

For further info, read the comments from bug 60814.

Comment 12

[Grey Hodge (jX)]

Adding me to the CC lsit. Sorry for the spam. My brain isn't multitasking well 
today. Every time I try to do more than one thing at a time, the world looks 
blue, I see odd text with strange numbers, and I can't move or talk until some 
one smacks me upside the head.

Comment 13

[Jesse Ruderman]

IE actually can run local programs, and it doesn't copy them to the cache 
before running them.  See bug 59932 for an rfe that would let Mozilla do the 
same.

Comment 14

[Grey Hodge (jX)]

But that relates to IE's shell abilities, and is not inreality part of the 
browser. The Intergration of the two has blurred the lines, but it actualyl 
calls different libraries when browsing local disks.

Comment 15

[Jesse Ruderman]

*** Bug 60814 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 16

[timeless]

fwiw. On NT you can run app streams. iirc Borland's Delphi offers this 
feature.

Beyond that. I would like people to read bug 60814 before they implement 
anything. >Don't remove this dependency<

Comment 17

[famtie]

Dupliced with 59932
And I have told that same bug is excuting exe from local disk.
But This bug will told more than only excuting exe.

Comment 18

[famtie]

Dupliced with 59932
And I have told that same bug is excuting exe from local disk.
But This bug will told more than only excuting exe.

Comment 19

[[e-mail] (gone - use [e-mail] instead)]

I do this *everyday* ftom ftp://sweetlou, getting my commercial builds, I just
double click ns6setup.exe and it prompts me to Open this file or Save to Disk.
Naturally, I open this file, and it automatically runs the setup program.  Am I
missing something here?

Comment 20

[Grey Hodge (jX)]

Holy crap. I never thought to use the "Open with" without any selection. Well, 
smakc me with a large trout. Thta's half my project done. Next is a warning when 
doing this.

Comment 21

[Joseph Elwell]

stephend: you're missing nothing, but everyone else is missing an intuitive UI.

Comment 22

[Blake Ross]

This is such a useful feature, and it's already been implemented; let's not 
waste time going the extra tenth of a mile and exposing it to users.  Bill, 
what's the least hackish way to determine the extension of the filetype being 
downloaded (not having explored helper app dlg code yet)?  Matthew, can you 
offer some UI advice here?

Comment 23

[Ian Tommins ('thelem')]

It should not be done by file extention, it should be done by the type of the 
data (whatever the equivilent of text/html is), if this is possible.

Most windows magazine cover disks use HTML interfaces, so people can only use 
them in IE. Adding this feature would make Mozilla seem like a better browser 
to the journalists, so they would hopefully write about it in a more positive 
light, increasing user base.

Comment 24

[timeless]

so you want us to register application/vnd.microsoft.windows.win32 and map .exe 
to that mime type? [a] we can 't do that (we aren't microsoft). [b] that's 
yucky. [c] what happens when the file really should have been 
application/vnd.microsoft.dos or application/vnd.microsoft.winnt.posix or ... 
application/vnd.unknown.dos.protectedmode ...

Assuming you don't want us to register lots of silly mime types, we'd rely on 
something like application/octetstream (* there are probably 5-20 different 
mime types all of which mean: binary, possibly executable) which could be a 
solaris sparc binary or a macos binary (*macos binaries are likely to be 
destroyed, but ...) and then we'd be doing the user a disfavor when we let them 
'run' an 'application' (which clearly won't work)

Comment 25

[Ian Tommins ('thelem')]

Calm down, by the very fact that I put 'whatever the equivilent of text/html is
' I showed that I did not know what the status of mime types for executables
was. I was merely pointing out that using file extensions was not a perfect
method, however it may be the best method.

Comment 26

[famtie]

I think that we must added feature: EXE-files will be checked by Virusscan 
before exe-files will be executed. It can be warn that it's not tested by 
virusscan. Do you want to scan this file for unknown virus?

Comment 27

[Grey Hodge (jX)]

While I should have noted a long time ago I am currently unable to contribute 
code, I feel the need to adda reply now. When you say Virus Scan, are you 
meaning the name of an actual product, or just virus scanners in general? No two 
programs use the same format for command arguments, etc. But also, many good 
scanners scan files upon execution I use Norton, and it scans EXEs automatically 
upon the program being launched. I see no need to double up there.

Comment 28

[famtie]

you can select one of scanners. This feature that you can switch : scan this 
file or block EXE for Security.
It can used for exes from internet. but it will not for exes from localhost.

Comment 29

[timeless]

Please address virus scanning in a seperate bug. AIM does offer virusscanning 
support in its interface but that is _FAR_ beyond the scope of this bug.

Comment 30

[benc]

Open Networking bugs, qa=tever -> qa to me.

Comment 31

[Blake Ross]

usability/polish, 0.9.4.

Comment 32

[Ian Tommins ('thelem')]

Are you sure? This doesn't look fixed to me...

Comment 33

[Blake Ross]

Hit the wrong button...

Comment 34

[Blake Ross]

law has this item, i believe.

Comment 35

[Bill Law]

*** Bug 102760 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 36

[Bill Law]

->mozilla0.9.9

Comment 37

[Bill Law]

yes, I know this bug predates that one by a lot, but that's the bug we created 
for this feature in MachV

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 106094 ***

Comment 38

[Christian :Biesinger (don't email me, ping me on IRC)]

vrfy

Comment 39

[benc]

->file handling w/ qa.