Find out when active IE instances of windows start.

Question

We have an application that runs as a service on Windows. The service periodically checks active instances of Internet Explorer using SHDocVw.ShellWindows (). In doing so, we can commit the URL in each instance of IE.

My question is : Is it possible to find out how the web page was launched in each of these instances of IE. For instance -

• A user entered a URL in IE to load a web page?
• Did the user select a link from another IE tab to run?
• The user started an instance of IE from another desktop application, such as Outlook, etc.

Thanks.

Answer 1

The closest thing I could find to your specific requirement was this also check part 2 of the same blog where some edge cases were discussed.

Part 1 of the blog talks about a registry key named TypedURLs (path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Internet Explorer \ TypedURLs), which can be found in the registry editor, update rules for this key are as follows:

If the link is copied and pasted from the web page into the address bar of the URL, and the user enters it, this will also fill in the key, since this is akin to the physical input of the entire address. If you enter an invalid web page or resource address that cannot be located, the key will not be filled until the connection or request is completed (whether it was completed or failed). If the IEs Stop function is selected before the connection or resource is completed, the key will not be filled.

It is important to note that sites visited by the browser through hyperlinks, redirects, the IE Favorites menu or the users home page will not fill in this key. In addition, when the user chooses to delete browsing history using the built-in IE function, this key is cleared.

Hope this helps!