Windows 10 and your Transmitter

Shortcut to Nautel transmitter IP – forcing NON-default browser
Scott Schmeling – Minnesota Valley Broadcasting

I was able to attend the Nautel User’s Group as well as the afternoon AUI (Advanced User Interface) session at this year’s NAB. During the AUI session, Nautel’s Matt Herdon talked about how the current AUI uses Flash technology (referred to as the “F-word”) and that big changes will be out sometime next year. But on the way back to the hotel I started thinking about something.

Some time ago I updated my laptop from Windows 7 Professional to Windows 10 Professional. For the most part it was a pretty uneventful change – with at least one exception.

I have a number of Nautel transmitters out in the field and have been logging into them from wherever I am using the AUI. Rather than typing the IP address manually, I have shortcuts for each transmitter which are nested inside a folder on my desktop. Each shortcut has the IP and port (http://nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn:10080/). The port depends on how you have port forwarding set up in the router at your transmitter site. Everything worked swimmingly —- until I updated.

I had always used Internet Explorer as my default browser. If you have updated to Win10, you know that IE was replaced with the new Edge browser, which is now my default (even though those “in the know” suggest using anything else).

When I double-click on any of my transmitter shortcuts the operating system starts my default browser (Edge) and goes to the address. Herein lies the problem. The AUI is built using Flash technology, but Edge does not support Flash! To connect, I have to click on the three horizontal dots in the upper right corner of the screen, then scroll down and choose “Run with Internet Explorer”. It gets me there but there are some unnecessary steps.

What I was thinking about was – if there is a way to force my shortcuts to use a NON-default browser. A little research on Google provided the answer. I had to put the path to IE (or YOUR preferred browser) in double quotation marks ahead of the address. Like this,
“C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe” http://nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn:10080/

I tried to manually edit the properties of my original shortcuts but they didn’t work. I checked – NO TYPO’s! But here’s what I found that DID work properly.

Find a spot where you would like your (first) shortcut and right-click/new/shortcut.

Then ‘BROWSE’ to the program location and click ‘OK’.

Once the path to the program is in the address field, place the cursor AFTER the second quotation marks, press the space bar and add the IP address of your transmitter like this http://nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn:10080/ . Your port depends on the port forwarding settings in the router at your transmitter site.

Click ‘NEXT’. Choose a name for your shortcut.

iexplore.exe is in the field, Change it to something more appropriate and click ‘FINISH’.

You will see the shortcut placed where you started. It will have the Internet Explorer Icon. If you want, you can right-click the icon and click on ‘CHANGE ICON’ to change to something else if you would like.

That’s it. Easy as pie and works like a charm!!

So, there you have it folks – thanks again to all who made it to Las Vegas and made time to stop by and see us. For those who couldn’t make the trip, I hope to see you in my travels over the next year! Also, for those who couldn’t make it (and those who could), the presentations from the NUG sessions for this year (and previous years) are archived on our website here. Until next issue, work safely, and happy engineering!