Sciencetext Tips & Tricks

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Use Windows Calculator to Access the Web

January 28th, 2008 · by David Bradley >> 8 Comments

Open a web browser in NotepadIf you’re reading this, then presumably you’re either viewing the post in a browser window or an email program via the free updates service, but how would you get your regular fix of Sciencetext, or MajorGeeks for that matter, if you didn’t have access to your email or the machine on which you’re working has barred web browsers?

Well, if you’re lucky enough to be on a Windows machine, even if it is without Internet Explorer and no option to install Firefox or Opera, you can still open a web browser window thanks to the built in functionality of the operating system itself.

Okay, so how do you open a web browser on a machine with no accessible web browser? It’s simple and takes just three steps:

  1. Open Windows Calculator, Notepad, or Paint
  2. Hit F1 to open help and click the top-left “query” icon
  3. Click the phrase “Jump to URL…” and type in the full address with http:// and hit the enter key

Or you could type “C:\%windir%\hh.exe http://www.sciencetext.com” (change the OS path (%windir%) to Windows, WinNT, or whatever it is on your machine, as necessary; without the quotes) or use that in the Start – Windows – Run box. I suspect none of this is possible on Microsoft’s OS downgrade, Vista.

Open browser
This should fire up a limited version of Internet Explorer and allow you to surf the web to your heart’s content. Your mileage may vary depending on how smart your IT department is. If web access has been blocked at the system Firewall then there is no probably no way around this problem.

Thanks to Download Squad for the original tip.

The approach is also very useful if for some reason your browser has been hijacked by a rogue site. It might even be used to access Google Mail, My Yahoo, Hotmail, Orkut, Facebook, and other applications that may have been blocked for whatever reason on the machine you’re using at work, in school, or elsewhere, especially if you’ve tried to access them using a proxy.

8 responses so far ↓

  • Wayne Smallman // Jan 30, 2008 at 1:02 pm

    A little unorthodox .. OK, a lot unorthodox!

    So how much of a web browser is this?

    There’s a similar help tool for the Mac that runs from web pages, so I’m wondering if that could be bent all out shape the same way, too…

    Wayne Smallman’s last blog post..Build a Brand. Own the Network. : SEO Book.com [del.icio.us]

  • David Bradley // Jan 30, 2008 at 1:49 pm

    I don’t recall what made me put this post together, it is a little unorthodox, but I guess if you’re on a company or school system and they didn’t install a standalone browser you might still be able to do some surfing when you should be working using this method. If you have a Mac howto let us know

    db

  • David Buchmann // Feb 21, 2008 at 5:52 am

    I must say I’ve found lots of interesting tidbits on your blog. For some reason (maybe it’s my sneaky ninja instincts) this one tipped the balance for me and I’ll be subscribing to your feed.

    Thanks for the interesting information throughout,

    -David-

  • David Bradley // Feb 21, 2008 at 7:36 am

    David, I love this little hack. Like you say, it’s got a touch of the ninja about it, although as a karate novice I’d have to say it’s got chops. ;-)

    Thanks for subscribing, see you on the far post.

    db

  • genesis // Oct 4, 2008 at 9:41 pm

    i need go to the myspace because i have family in myspace

  • David Bradley // Oct 4, 2008 at 10:05 pm

    Genesis, you have family in MySpace? That’s an interesting notion. My family live in the real world. Get a life…

  • dick olson // Jan 14, 2009 at 9:28 pm

    this works good on xp but what will work on a vista machine? mine has some virus preventing it from accessing my router on my dsl site? thanks

  • David Bradley // Jun 24, 2009 at 4:29 pm

    European law could forbid Microsoft from shipping Windows 7 this October with Internet Explorer included. Not sure whether this hack will then work, but if it doesn’t how is anyone in Europe going to get hold of an alternative browser?

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