From d91f8849a277d206f7ae1a4e6b8a9d7d5b4a20e0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shablone <20610621+Shablone@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon, 25 May 2026 23:37:10 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] chore(syncthing): open URLs via Windows API instead via
 cmd.exe (#10712)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

### Purpose
On Windows replace `cmd.exe /C start` with direct `ShellExecute` API for
opening the webpage.

The previous implementation used `exec.Command("cmd.exe", "/C", "start
"+url)` which spawns two extra processes (cmd.exe → start). Launching
cmd.exe resulted in a shortly visible terminal.

Both
-`start`
-and another alternative `exec.Command("rundll32",
"url.dll,FileProtocolHandler", url).Start()`
are just wrappers for `ShellExecute`. So this implementation is even
more direct

### Testing

I executed the compiled syncthing.exe on Windows 11, both from explorer
and console. The webpage opened as expected.

### Screenshots

N/A.

### Documentation

N/A

## Authorship

Name: Elias @Shablone
Email: [1elias.bauer@gmail.com](mailto:1elias.bauer@gmail.com)

Signed-off-by: Elias <1elias.bauer@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Elias <1elias.bauer@gmail.com>
---
 cmd/syncthing/openurl_windows.go | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/cmd/syncthing/openurl_windows.go b/cmd/syncthing/openurl_windows.go
index 2f5eca8ef..a89ea4b77 100644
--- a/cmd/syncthing/openurl_windows.go
+++ b/cmd/syncthing/openurl_windows.go
@@ -9,8 +9,27 @@
 
 package main
 
-import "os/exec"
+import "golang.org/x/sys/windows"
 
 func openURL(url string) error {
-	return exec.Command("cmd.exe", "/C", "start "+url).Run()
+	urlPtr, err := windows.UTF16PtrFromString(url)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	verbPtr, err := windows.UTF16PtrFromString("open")
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	err = windows.ShellExecute(
+		0,       // hwnd
+		verbPtr, // operation
+		urlPtr,  // file
+		nil,     // parameters
+		nil,     // directory
+		windows.SW_SHOWNORMAL,
+	)
+
+	return err
 }