How to make explorer open by default when opening an ftp connection, I found can be easy..

I needed to make IE6 style FTP access without the extra pop up step, from a desktop shortcut at work and after much googling, and messing with the registery, attempting to make an ftp site open immediatly in explorer without the main browser opening (pre IE7), I found it can be simply done like this.

1. create a bat file (open notepad, save the file with the affix .bat, making sure .txt is not selected in the dropdown)
2. in the batch file add

start explorer ftp://USERNAME:PASSWORD@FTP_SERVER_ADDRESS

3. add the shortcut to the desktop, and style the icon

Now when the user clicks the shortcut, voila IE6 style FTP access without the extra step, much easier than poking around with the registery 😉