rootninja

Links to files using “file:////” are disabled by default in just about every browser except possibly Internet Explorer because it is an easily exploitable security vulnerability. Malicious sites could detect your operating system or installed applications by checking default installation paths, or worse, browse your cookies, sifting for sensitive data. As system vulnerabilities are discovered, files related to exploits could also be detected.

If you simply have to have the file Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) working in Firefox, there are a few ways to do it.

You can just enable it the Mozilla intended way, which is the most straightforward fix.

In the URL bar type “about:config” and make sure the security.checkloaduri preference’s boolean value is set to true. Also, If you set “security.fileuri.strict_origin_policy” to false this makes local documents have access to all other local documents, including directory listings.

Or there’s mozilla addons to make it more interactive, but this addon was broken in the latest versions of Firefox the last time I checked. The LocalLink addon from mozilla.org allows you to override security on a per-click basis, which is what I prefer.

The IETab addon from mozilla.org will open straight into explorer.exe which is what you probably want if you’re on a Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7.