Changed behaviour of Desktop.browse on Windows

[Christopher Schnick]

Does anyone have input on this? I had to revert all deployments I made 
with JDK 25.0.2 back to JDK 25.0.1 due to it breaking various different 
features that relied on opening URLs of specific applications. The same 
will probably also apply to many other applications out there.

Is there a supported way in JDK 25.0.2 to open an URL with the 
associated application instead of the web browser on Windows?

On 10/02/2026 16:45, Christopher Schnick wrote:
> Hello,
>
> We recently upgraded our application to JDK 25.0.2 and saw a changed 
> behaviour in the Desktop.browse method when opening any non-http URLs 
> on Windows. Previously, those URLs were opened with the default 
> application associated with that URL scheme, now it always opens the 
> URL in the web browser, even though it shouldn't really do that. Even 
> stuff like file:// URLs are opened in the browser.
>
> I saw there were PRs for both the AWT and JavaFX implementation for 
> opening URLs, but the related JBS issues are private. So I'm guessing 
> some kind of security issue?
>
> Is this the expected behaviour now due to security constraints or is 
> this a bug?
>
> Best
> Christopher Schnick
>