How can I launch a web browser from my Java application?

Question

I've reed about this at Question of the Week (http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/qow/archive/15/index.html). It doesn't work for me. I'm running win2000 and trying:
try {
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("start iexplore http://java.sun.com");
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println( e.getMessage() );
I get:
CreateProcess: start iexplore http://java.sun.com error=2
What's wrong?

Answer 1

This function will launch the default browser under Windows.
public static void displayURL(String url) throws IOException   {
    String cmd = null;
    Process p;
    try  {
        String os = System.getProperty("os.name");     
        if (os != null && os.startsWith("Windows")) {
            if (os.startsWith("Windows 9") || os.startsWith("Windows Me"))  // Windows 9x/Me
                cmd = "start " + url;
            else // Windows NT/2000/XP
                cmd = "cmd /c start " + url;
            p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd);     
    catch(IOException x)        {
        // couldn't exec browser
        System.err.println("Could not invoke browser, command=" + cmd);