URL Field Capabilities

The URL field can execute any valid URL, for which you have defined a protocol handler. On most systems at least the http://, ftp:// and mailto: protocols are defined. KeePass supports all registered protocols that Internet Explorer supports.

For example, if you globally (i.e. using the Windows Explorer) register PuTTY for ssh:// URLs, KeePass will automatically use PuTTY for ssh:// URLs, too.

Executing Command Lines

Instead of an URL, you can also execute command lines using the URL field. To tell KeePass that the line you entered is a command line, prefix it using cmd://. For example if you would like to execute Notepad, your URL could look like this:

The virtual cmd:// protocol also supports parameters for executable files, in contrast to the file:// protocol. This was the main reason why cmd:// was introduced; with file:// you aren't able to pass any parameters to started applications. Use the cmd:// protocol instead.

The paths for the cmd:// protocol don't need to be encoded. For example, you do not have to replace space characters by %20, as it is normally required for other URLs. KeePass just cuts away the cmd:// virtual protocol prefix and passes the remaining command line to Windows.

Environment Variables:
Windows environment variables are supported. For example %TEMP% is replaced by the user's temporary path.

UNC Paths:
Windows-style UNC paths (starting with \\) are directly supported, i.e. do not need to be prefixed with cmd://.

Placeholders

In the URL field, you can use several placeholders that will get automatically replaced when the URL is executed. For example:

For this entry, KeePass will replace {USERNAME} by the data of the username field and {PASSWORD} by the data in the password field when you execute the link.

Exactly the same placeholders are supported as the auto-type feature supports. For a complete list of supported placeholders, see the Auto-Type Placeholders List.

Also note that the special placeholders are supported, too. For example, the {APPDIR} placeholder is replaced by the application directory path of the currently running KeePass instance. It's the absolute path of the directory containing the KeePass executable, without a trailing backslash. If you would like to start a new KeePass instance, you could set the URL to:

To use different browsers for entries, you can use URLs like the following:
cmd://{INTERNETEXPLORER} "http://www.yoursite.com"
cmd://{FIREFOX} "http://www.yoursite.com"
cmd://{OPERA} "http://www.yoursite.com"
cmd://{GOOGLECHROME} "http://www.yoursite.com"
The browser placeholder will be replaced by the browser's executable path (if the browser is installed).

KeePass 1.x Only

Changing the URL Handler (URL Override)

The URL field behavior can be overridden individually for each entry using the Notes field. This allows you to execute a specific URL, while still using the URL field to (only) store data.
Simply enter Url-Override: followed by the command line you require into the notes field. When double-clicking the URL field of the entry in the main window, the specified command line (in the notes field) will be run.

Using a different browser:
If your default browser is Firefox and you want to open a specific site with Internet Explorer, add the following to the Notes field:

Url-Override: cmd://{INTERNETEXPLORER} "{URL}"

KeePass will automatically open Internet Explorer and pass the data from the URL field as the parameter. This uses a Placeholder to find Internet Explorer.

Running KeeForm:
If you want to open a specific site with KeeForm and Internet Explorer, add the following to the Notes field:

Url-Override: cmd://"{APPDIR}\KeeForm.exe" "{URL}" "{USERNAME}" "{PASSWORD}" {ENTERFORM}

KeePass will automatically open KeeForm and pass the data from the URL field, along with the user name and password as parameters.

Globally changing the URL behavior:
If you want to change the default URL action (i.e. for all URLs), you can add a KeeUrlOverride line to the KeePass.ini file.

To use KeeForm as the default URL handler, add the following line to the end of KeePass.ini:

KeeUrlOverride=cmd://"{APPDIR}\KeeForm.exe" "{URL}" "{USERNAME}" "{PASSWORD}" {ENTERFORM}

More detailed KeeForm setup and usage instructions can be found in the help file of KeeForm.

Starting RDP/TS Sessions

You can use the URL field of entries and the virtual cmd:// protocol to start remote desktop connections.

When you now double-click the URL field of the entry in the main window, a Windows remote desktop connection is initiated.

MSTSC is the Windows terminal server connection program (remote desktop connection). You can pass a path to an existing RDP file to the program to open it. For example, the following URL opens the specified RDP file:

Executing Built-In Shell Commands

The URL field can be used to start applications/documents and URLs. If you want to execute a built-in shell command, like COPY for example, this however doesn't work directly, because there is no COPY.EXE (in Windows 9x times there actually was one, but on all modern Windows operating systems these commands are built-in to the command line window).

In order to execute built-in shell commands, you need to pass them to the command line interpreter cmd.exe.

For the COPY command you would specify cmd.exe as executable file and /C COPY from to as arguments (where 'from' and 'to' are paths). The /C parameter tells cmd.exe to execute the command line that follows.

In the URL field, your URL would look like the following:
cmd://cmd.exe /C COPY from to
In other locations, like command lines in the trigger system, you can leave out the cmd:// URL prefix.