HTML links to local network shares

Question

Why do these links not work? If I click on them in FF or Chrome, nothing happens - it doesn't even try to open them!

<a href="file://someshare/dir/subdir/file.txt">Linky</a>
<a href="file:////someshare/dir/subdir/file.txt"> Linky</a>
<a href="file://\\someshare\dir\subdir\file.txt">Linky</a>

Any ideas?

Answer 1

In general, this is disabled because it is a security risk. See also this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1254572/cross-browser-link-to-file-on-local-system, and the link provided by sleske to here.

Answer 2

Peter's got the answer, but FYI you should find something like the following in FF's Error Console (available from the Tools menu):

Security Error: Content at http://localhost/temp/a.html may not load or link to file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/zzzzzzzz/My%20Documents/www/temp/box.html.