From a tip I received:

Launch a PC's default browser with ShellExecute API

Often, you may want a user to access a specific URI on the Web by 
launching his default browser and navigating to the Web site of your 
choice. Fortunately, a simple Windows API function ShellExecute() lets 
you do just that. When you pass this function a filename, it uses the 
Windows file associations to start the appropriate application. As a 
result, all you need do is pass this function a URI, and it automatically 
launches the default browser and navigates to the requested location. 

The ShellExecute() function conforms to the following syntax:

Private Declare Function ShellExecute Lib _
     "shell32.dll" Alias "ShellExecuteA" _
     (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal lpOperation _
     As String, ByVal lpFile As String, ByVal _
     lpParameters As String, ByVal lpDirectory _
     As String, ByVal nShowCmd As Long) As Long

As you can see, it takes quite a few parameters, but don't worry, for our 
purposes only two concern us: lpFile and nShowCmd. The lpFile parameter 
holds the name of the file or application you want to launch, while the 
nShowCmd parameter contains directions indicating how you want the 
application to appear when it opens. Typically, you'll use the SW_SHOWNORMAL

constant (1).

So for instance, to use this function to navigate to a Web page with the 
URI www.google.com, you'd write code along the lines of:

ShellExecute 0&, vbNullString, "www.google.com", vbNullString, _
      vbNullString, SW_SHOWNORMAL

If for any reason the ShellExecute() doesn't execute the application 
properly, the function returns a value less than or equal to 32. Otherwise, 
it returns a value that points to the launched application.

-----Original Message-----
From: David [mailto:davidbradley@h...]
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2001 11:19 AM
To: professional vb
Subject: [pro_vb] Open the browser from a VB form.


Does anyone know how to open the users default browser from a VB form and 
set the browsers URL?



Thanks,

David