title: local file:// links in chrome or edge
body: <p>Having <strong>file://</strong> links within a website e.g. http://localhost will not open because of security reason. <br/><br/>
  In IE and Firefox it's possible to allow such access either in the &quot;Trusted Sites&quot; &amp; &quot;Local Intranet&quot; from IE or to configure a policy in Firefox:</p>
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/ifCDr.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/ifCDr.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
  <p>I can't figure out a way in Chrome or Edge.<br/> Searching the web I came across solutions like the <strong>--allow-file-access-from-files</strong> flag, but that does not work in Chrome 77.0.<br/>
  Also there are some extensions which enable that behavior:
  <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/enable-local-file-links/nikfmfgobenbhmocjaaboihbeocackld" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Enable local file links</a></p>
  <p>I believe there must be some similar way with policies like in Firefox?</p>
  <p><strong>EDIT: update 22.03.2021</strong></p>
  <p>Chrome Version 89.0.4389.90 <br/>
  Edge Version 89.0.774.57 <br/></p>
  <p>Result:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>Not allowed to load local resource: file:///D:/temp/demo.pdf</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>Demo HTML:</p>
  <p><div class="snippet" data-lang="js" data-hide="false" data-console="true" data-babel="false">
  <div class="snippet-code">
  <pre class="snippet-code-html lang-html prettyprint-override"><code>&lt;html&gt;
  &lt;body&gt;
      &lt;a href="file://fileserver/demo.pdf"&gt;file://fileserver/demo.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;
      &lt;a href="file:///d:/temp/demo.pdf"&gt;file:///d:/temp/demo.pdf&lt;/a&gt; extra slash according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_URI_scheme
  &lt;/body&gt;
  &lt;/html&gt;</code></pre>
  </div>
  </div>
  </p>