[thelist] Executing local .exe from Website

[James Mclean]

All,

I am building a website where I would like the ability  to launch a
executable from the website, by clicking on a link.

I understand this could be a huge security hole, and therefore may not
be able to be done.

Basically the site is an Online Gaming community, and it has the
abilit to to view who is playing in a game, frags, time online etc.
Currently, the user can click the "connect" link, which contains a URL
such as this - hls-game://cs.adam.com.au:27015/ , and this launches an
external program called ServerQuery. While this process works well, it
requires the presence of ServerQuery, which some people do not use, i
want to see if there is a way around it. The users all have an account,
and they can have ability to specify a location to the executable.

Active X components to do this mabey? a simple <a
href="c:\games\half-life\hl.exe -game cstrike">Connect</a> even?

TIA, any pointers helpful.

The server is Debian GNU/Linux, Apache 1.3.26/PHP4.2.2.

Regards,

James Mclean