BrowserAptor

Browser and browser profile selector for opening links on Windows

BrowserAptor is a lightweight .NET 10 WPF application that registers itself as a default browser on Windows. Every time you click a link (e.g. from email, Slack, Teams, etc.), BrowserAptor intercepts it and shows you a selector window so you can choose exactly which browser and which profile to open the link in.

---

Features

• 🔍 Auto-detects all installed browsers: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, Opera GX, Chromium, Yandex Browser, and more.
• 👤 Profile-aware: Reads Chrome/Edge/Brave/Vivaldi Local State files and Firefox profiles.ini to list every profile individually.
• 🕵️ Incognito / Private mode: Every detected browser automatically includes an incognito/private profile entry.
• 🖱️ Quick selection: Click or double-click a browser/profile entry, or press Enter to open the link. Press Escape or Cancel to dismiss.
• 🔲 Grid CLI view: Use --format grid to see browsers as rows and profiles as columns.
• 🖱️ Configurable click mode: Use --single-click to open profiles with a single click instead of double-click.
• 🪟 Registers as a Windows browser: BrowserAptor writes the necessary HKCU registry keys so Windows sees it as a browser you can set as default from Settings → Apps → Default apps → Web browser.
• ✨ No admin rights required: All registration is done under HKCU (current user only).

---

Project Structure

browseraptor/
├── BrowserAptor.slnx                 # Solution file
├── src/
│   ├── BrowserAptor/                 # WPF application (Windows, net10.0-windows)
│   │   ├── App.xaml / App.xaml.cs    # Application entry point & startup logic
│   │   ├── Views/
│   │   │   └── BrowserSelectorWindow # Main selector UI
│   │   ├── ViewModels/
│   │   │   └── BrowserSelectorViewModel
│   │   ├── Registration/
│   │   │   └── BrowserRegistrar      # Windows registry registration helper
│   │   ├── ExeIconConverter.cs       # WPF converter: exe path → icon
│   │   └── Resources/
│   │       └── browseraptor.ico
│   └── BrowserAptor.Core/            # Platform-agnostic core library (net10.0)
│       ├── Models/
│       │   ├── BrowserInfo.cs
│       │   ├── BrowserProfile.cs
│       │   └── BrowserType.cs
│       └── Services/
│           ├── IBrowserDetectionService.cs
│           ├── BrowserDetectionService.cs   # Registry + file-system detection
│           ├── IBrowserLaunchService.cs
│           ├── BrowserLaunchService.cs      # Process.Start launcher
│           └── FirefoxProfileParser.cs      # profiles.ini parser
└── tests/
    └── BrowserAptor.Tests/           # xUnit tests (net10.0, runs on Linux/Mac/Windows)
        └── BrowserTests.cs

---

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• .NET 10 SDK
• Windows 10 / 11 (runtime; build works on any OS)

Build

dotnet build BrowserAptor.slnx

Run Tests

dotnet test tests/BrowserAptor.Tests/BrowserAptor.Tests.csproj

Publish (self-contained Windows executable)

dotnet publish src/BrowserAptor/BrowserAptor.csproj `
    -c Release `
    -r win-x64 `
    --self-contained true `
    -p:PublishSingleFile=true `
    -o publish/

---

Setting as Default Browser

1. Run BrowserAptor once (double-click or run BrowserAptor.exe). It will automatically register itself in the Windows registry.
2. Open Windows Settings → Apps → Default apps.
3. Search for BrowserAptor or scroll to it under Web browser and select it.
4. Done! The next time you click a link, the selector window will appear.

You can also register or unregister manually:

BrowserAptor.exe --register
BrowserAptor.exe --unregister

---

CLI Usage

# List all detected browsers and profiles
BrowserAptor.exe --list-browsers

# List in grid format (browsers as rows, profiles as columns)
BrowserAptor.exe --list-browsers --format grid

# Other output formats: list (default), json, yaml, csv, table
BrowserAptor.exe --list-browsers --format json

# Enable single-click to open a profile in the selector window
BrowserAptor.exe --single-click

# Restore default double-click behavior
BrowserAptor.exe --no-single-click

---

How It Works

1. Registration (BrowserRegistrar): On first launch, BrowserAptor creates HKCU registry keys for http, https, and ftp protocol handlers and registers itself under Software\RegisteredApplications so Windows lists it in Default Apps settings.

2. Detection (BrowserDetectionService): When a URL is received, the service scans known %LOCALAPPDATA% paths for Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera…) and reads their Local State JSON to enumerate profiles. For Firefox, it reads %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles.ini.

3. Selector UI (BrowserSelectorWindow): A dark-themed WPF window lists every browser+profile combination. The user selects one and clicks Open (or double-clicks / presses Enter).

4. Launch (BrowserLaunchService): Opens the selected browser with the correct profile flag (--profile-directory="..." for Chromium, -P "name" for Firefox) and the target URL.

---

License

MIT