PowerToys cannot use BrowseRouter to execute a web search.

[mudnug]

Wanted to let the community know that PowerToys can't always launch BrowseRouter correctly: microsoft/PowerToys#36083

[nref]

Hi, thanks for the report. Can you please provide BrowseRouter logs? You can find them in C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\BrowseRouter. Make sure the following is in your config.ini file:

[log]
enabled = true

The log contains URLs you have visited. Please take care to remove anything from the file you won't want seen publicly.

[mudnug]

There are no logs from the attempt to execute a search. I expect it is purely an issue PowerToys would resolve (I just wanted to link their their issue)

[mudnug]

It turns out the error is resolved after implementing the missing quotes as mentioned in #63
"Z:\Path To\BrowseRouter\BrowseRouter.exe" %1

(As of 2024-12-08 there was a bug in the location of the quotes that will likely be fixed separately)

The error was caused by quotes missing in the registry, however, It appears the browsers accept multiple arguments by default and browser router breaks this behavior for the following feature:
BrowseRouter.exe https://example.org/ [...more URLs]

Could we add something like (brainstorming here) BrowseRouter.exe --single-argument first [more words] which can then be passed directly to the browser so that this functionality is supported?

I got --single-argument based on
https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/src/modules/launcher/Wox.Plugin/Common/DefaultBrowserInfo.cs but I believe it could be named anything.

Then we would put that argument in the registry so that apps calling BrowseRouter aren't inadvertently launching multiple tabs when trying to execute a single multiword query.

[nref]

Hi @mudnug . I could add a pass through flag, but how would BrowseRouter know which browser to open? BrowseRouter.exe --single-argument first [more words] doesn't contain a URL.

Most web searches can be done by passing a query parameter e.g. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=lorem ipsum

Could you teach me how you are using PowerToys, so I could understand the pain point? Thanks.

[mudnug]

This issue is with PowerToys Run. I have stopped using PowerToys Run and installed Flow Launcher, which doesn't have this issue and can call BrowseRouter in a way that web searches work.

I don't have a complete answer for you as I don't fully understand what causes the issue, but RaSan147 indicated PowerToys Run also has an issue calling Opera GX.

[nref]

Thanks for the update. I will close this issue. Feel free to reach out again if I can be of assistance.