How to add a MIME handler to Firefox and Internet Explorer from an installer

Question

I'm looking to create an installer that will add a handler for a MIME type in Firefox and Explorer. The installer I will be using will be either INNO (a.k.a Oh Nooo!) or NSIS.

How do Mozilla and Microsoft recommend adding a handler. So far all I have been able to find for Firefox is how to Add/Remove/Augment manually which no matter how simple is something I would like to hide from the user.

Answer 1

this worked for me http://stackoverflow.com/questions/136948/launching-a-registered-mime-helper-application

but if you want that firefox opens the handler without asking anything (like when you check the "do this always" or how is it called), you'll probably have to mess with mimeTypes.xml. see http://www.math.ubc.ca/MathNet/FAQ/index.shtml?FirefoxHelper.html

Answer 2

For NSIS, to register your application as default for a given MIME type, you can either :

1. manually write new keys in the registry the way it is shown here (using the MIMEAssociations subkey)
2. use the Application Association Registration plug-in

If the mime-type is correctly registered, I don't think you'll have any problem.

There's an explanation here on how Firefox handles MIME / file mapping.