Weird URL Protocols

Ever wondered what URL protocols are out there?
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▼ Time Stamps: ▼
0:00 - Intro
1:34 - URL Protocol Basics
4:50 - Protocol Examples
6:50 - Windows Specific Protocols
8:25 - Officially Registered Protocols
10:22 - Private Schemes
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[@shr1han]

The old Microsoft Edge had a big security hole where you could just open an app from a website using the protocols. If you use some clever JavaScript to make a loop of it, you can't stop that until you power cycle your device.

[@AtomicNotes]

Yes! I watched a video by a youtuber called flytech and he abused that.

[@NewChannel-mx8uo]

@@AtomicNotes hey me too

[@smoked08]

@@AtomicNotes can you send me that video please? At least it's title so i can search and watch it

[@mrrage2265]

that would just be a troll fork bomb website lol

[@michaellin7936]

Perfect fork bomb

[@ThePowerRanger]

I want more of this type of content from this channel, all the nerdy details, everything.

[@GamingFrazix]

Hm u really think it was like this from the start at the start he showed people how to *_DoWnLoAd RaM_*

[@ThePowerRanger]

@@GamingFrazix I know of the glorious days you speak of comrade but those days are behind us, we must look forward.

[@GamingFrazix]

@David Herriot this WAS a troll channel but now he has deleted and privated all his troll videos :)

[@LoskLive]

Actually, the mailto: protocol is really powerful ! Because you can actually put in the subject, and the body inside.

[@bubu_hehe]

At least you can't send it automatically

[@krypton7900]

@@bubu_hehe JavaScript: let me introduce myself

[@Ruchunteur]

@@krypton7900 but then it's not with the mailto.

[@bubu_hehe]

@@krypton7900 But it isn't with he Mailto:// and the user would have to run the javascript for it to send an email, so you cant just send emails using an URL

[@bitonic589]

@@bubu_hehe Just realized it's mail-to not mal-i-toe

[@WolfBearHybrid]

8:16 these protocols have been around since Windows 8, almost every UWP app has its own protocol so it can be called basically anywhere in the system.

[@siggegaming1704]

so Minecraft uwp has an protocol

[@GamingFrazix]

@@siggegaming1704 BRUH WTF Minecraft:// ACTUALLY WORKS!

[@DryPaperHammerBro]

ThioJoe: *uses Steam in the example* Also ThioJoe: *uses Spotify as the visual aid*

[@elmosworld1345]

108 likes and only 1 comment let me fix that

[@annuraggg]

115 likes and only 2 comments? let me fix that

[@Yuvraj-Sachdeva]

133 likes and only 3 comments? let me fix that

[@wardengamer374]

139 likes and only 4 comments? let me fix that

[@ahqsoftwares]

141 likes and only 5 comments? Lemme fix that

[@tyrgoossens]

12:50 In the olden days some sysadmins used to create protocols to open terminal apps so you could have webpages that displayed info about servers and then have a link to open a terminal to that server.

[@SFSAtlas]

Can't you do that with SSH?

[@Leah96xxx]

The Steam one is actually what is used for Steam's desktop shortcuts. They don't point to an exe like normal app shortcuts, they instead point to a Steam URL telling Steam which game to launch (and launching Steam if it's not already running)

[@Cootshk]

the reason for this is that steam unpacks a game at launch as part of DRM

[@technicalmaster-mind]

Nice

[@MZZenyl]

There're also a number of protocols and URI Schemas that can be used on iOS to launch apps in different states, like different pages of the Settings app, and if I'm not mistaken, SpringBoard (the home screen). These can be used from a shortcut within the Shortcuts app (by Apple), which allows you to make some rather nifty shortcuts (not to mention that shortcuts can execute commands on remote machines via SSH, which is a completely different, but very interesting, topic).

[@FlameRat_YehLon]

The problem though, is that most of the apps seems to be not that well documented, probably to avoid people finding a way to skip launch ad or something... But still there's little documentation even for official Apple apps, and that gets in the way way to often I just don't find shortcut that useful.

[@MZZenyl]

@@FlameRat_YehLon I quite like shortcuts, allows me to launch applications on my PC remotely simply by executing a voice command.

[@FlameRat_YehLon]

@@MZZenyl well... Since I'm a Windows user and my PC is really funky (mobile chipset on a desktop motherboard) I'm out of luck, as my PC doesn't meet the requirement of Windows 11. But otherwise, that'd be really creative.

[@MZZenyl]

@@FlameRat_YehLon I'm also a Windows user, and none of my computers meet the requirements for Win11 (both in terms of the CPUs being too old, and a lack of TPM). As for launching applications on my PC from my iPhone, that'll work for all computers, be it Windows, macOS, or Linux. It works via SSH, and you can easily set up an SSH service on a Windows machine.

[@mylolkindnessroblox8093]

@@MZZenyl how do you do this? And is it secure if you use a private key and can it be done on a IOS device/ iPhone?

[@gaimnbro9584]

before watching this video i was legitmately joking that the magnet protocol would make your computer literally attract every peice of metal. it'd just become a gigantic magnet idk why

[@shikhanshu]

Very freaking awesome! Had no idea about registry keys for protocols. That explains where that association between a protocol and the program is captured. Thio forever!!!

[@grafando]

Your videos are so soothing and relaxing. I know most of this info already (I'm a huge nerd), but I still watch all your videos! You also word things very well, explain in-depth, and it's actually very helpful and interesting.

[@bernardonegri5416]

In a book, I once saw a reference that said "file://D:\text.pdf"

[@Suddsmcduffs]

i cant believe you upload still. used to watch you about 7 or 6 years ago when you made those videos like how to upgrade your ps3 to a ps4 and and how to charge your phone in 10 seconds. i believed that ps3 one and tried it but didnt work dissapointed as a kid but looking back at it. it was so funny and stupid

[@nepsoundfont4035]

Same ngl

[@TimLongson]

URL used to stand for "Universal Resource Locator", rather than "Uniform Resource Locator" - I wonder if that is just an American thing or it was changed since back when did my Masters in Computing in England.

[@mahdi-hasan]

Same here.

[@SuperPickle15]

They have always been Uniform Resource Locator, as described by RFC 1738. However, URI were called "Universal Resource Identifier" as decribed in RFC 1630. But, in a 1992 paper by the ITEF, they were being refered to "Uniform Resource Identifers". So i guess both names are correct, but Uniform has became the popular term over time.

[@nepsoundfont4035]

Uniform Resource Locator suggests that the computer is trying to find some materials required to manufacture a uniform of some kind and mass produce said uniform for everyone on earth lol

[@builderbbob]

I learned it as Universal in 5th grade…

[@ContentDeletedforever1]

I haven't finished watching the video but thank you for putting the time and effort into making these videos, I truly appreciate it😊😃..... Okay now back to the video 👌😅

[@Sollace]

6:28 I think it's worth just to add on to this (if not just because it's an interesting fact to know): There's actually nothing special about what we call "email addresses" that set them apart from normal URLs. The part before the "@" specifies what the username is, and you can add that to basically any url and the server will use that as your username. It's also possible to send both a username AND password, but these are not supported by most modern websites for obvious reasons. back on topic: The only thing that makes an email an email is the "mailto" scheme at the beginning which tells the client to use the address for sending and receiving emails. Almost all email clients like Gmail and Outlook will implicitly assume it's there the same way web browsers will assume urls have the http prefix when entered there.

[@henke37]

I wouldn't call the reasons obvious.

[@Sollace]

@@henke37 Simply put, it's not secure. If you have your username and password in the url, literally anyone can see them and use the same url to log in as you.

[@vvinterwulf]

@@Sollace anyone with physical access to the computer, right?

[@Sollace]

@@vvinterwulf Anyone who can see the url. It could be your mom looking at your browser history, or NordVPN with your traffic logs. Physical access isn't really a factor if all you need is a cursory glance and you have both the credentials and the location to use them in one place.

[@vvinterwulf]

@@Sollace gotcha, thanks!

[@Noe32]

This is something I always wanted to look into but for some reason I never did. Thanks for this!!

[@greenculturemedia]

Thanks for quaility information theo. Am proud to always be a subscriber.

[@_SJ]

Back to longer videos 👍🏻

[@syxioyt]

ye

[@groug5770]

Wonderful. Quick video, straight to the point. Perfect.

[@aaradhaychhabra3882]

this man deserves a billion views...so much info in just 1 video :)

[@pyp2205]

HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) DNS (Domain Name System) URL (Uniform Resource Locater)

[@bobcat_the_Lion]

Let's not forget FTP, for downloading a file that is on an FTP server without any webpage. You don't need an ftp application to download the file, browsers van do that.

[@pyp2205]

@@bobcat_the_Lion File Transfer Protocol

[@tegarz]

About:blank

[@thejellyguy]

@@tegarz to hide your por-

[@SFSAtlas]

@@bobcat_the_Lion I use them a lot when setting up Linux mirrors

[@robschn]

you did an awesome job explaining everything!

[@freezinfire]

Cool video, just enhanced my knowledge protocols.

[@grand701]

I just found this channel, amazing video. You look like the kind of guy who wore glasses his entire life and has switched to contacts.

[@moumous87]

This channel is gold. Talking as a non-dev who wants/needs to understand tech stuff.

[@skycandy_806]

Love the content. Keep the nerdy stuff coming

[@diablo.the.cheater]

For a program i wrote years ago i even made my own protocol, it was some instant VPN stuff specific to route a Nintendo switch trough, i did use the protocols to be able to send server links trough discord and by clicking the program opened them and connected to them automatically

[@RabblerouserGT]

To my knowledge there is also custom URIs for things like Google Play store links.

[@HKlink]

You forgot a very common one. about. about:blank being the most common use, I always set my new tab page to about:blank so it won't try loading anything. Firefox uses it extensively for its settings pages, you didn't mention Firefox at all, it only showed up once accidentally in the mailto part. Not everyone uses Chrome, and nobody intentionally uses Edge.

[@braxabnewest]

PEOPLE USE EDGE intentionally

[@Coco-qy6st]

Edge is just Chrome but faster with more out of the box features.

[@xozeintk8093]

Thanks for the information Thio.

[@FedJimSmith]

wow I learned alot of practical computing there, thank joe

[@EverythingComputerized]

Thank you bro! It was helpful!

[@Scrawlerism]

Very great details thank you

[@GraysOuttaContext]

Brother thio joe thank you for helping me everytime

[@ericcorvers75]

You also have the gopher:// uri wich was a predesessor of . If you go to edge://surf in the edge browser you get a mini game in the browser.

[@vladislavkaras491]

Thanks for the video!

[@lyfandeth]

THANK YOU JOE! Never in all the years have I seen this documented.

[@YusufYaser]

Your videos are useful, continue!

[@dimiidk2798]

what's a better feeling than seeing that ThioJoe posted a new video :DDD

[@e.mp3404]

about:blank has to be my favorite website

[@jaecadejnight]

lol its literally nothing

[@killertigergaming6762]

Why does that even exist i get it so much

[@geoffroi-le-Hook]

I remember ftp:// and gopher://

[@jackkraken3888]

I thought he was going to mention those. Especially FTP since it's still being used.

[@rreiter]

@@jackkraken3888 I would have thought so too. These used to be a staple and I sometimes still use ftp. But I guess for the younger audience here ftp isn't as snazzy as steam:// and would be akin to showing them a typewriter...

[@visvge4934]

I use ftp as a foothold when hacking if that counts as a young person knowing it lmao

[@EquaTechnologies]

There are also data URLs and a "about:" Chrome URL witch is the same as chrome:// but can load blank pages with about:blank. Amazing video!

[@rikschaaf]

"chrome:" is not just used for google chrome (and chromium). It is also used in Firefox, but for a slightly different purpose. In firefox it refers to the chrome of the firefox window, as in: everything that isn't the website itself (think of the menu, favorites and status bar, the tabs, etc.). I don't know for sure, but I believe that plugins sometimes also use them, whenever they don't use "moz-extentions:".

[@justaivideos]

Thanks ThioJoe

[@agent7c_]

I’ve been wondering about this!

[@Ncyphen]

The Steam Console is not a secret tab. It can be enabled within Steam settings. It's only hidden by default as most people won't find it useful.

[@spicemasterii6775]

Awesome! Subscribed!

[@siyabongadlamini2904]

Very useful information more more please

[@csharpcoffee]

The steam console can be pretty useful for downloading an older version of some game file. A common use is to download an older TESV.exe file for Skyrim SE when modding with SKSE plugins.

[@AltName7]

That's pretty interesting, being able to access older versions of games sounds pretty useful. (but of course mainly for those goofy reasons that people would want to)

[@Wieprzek]

I think they are going to revoke that, like they will no longer keep old versions of games on their servers, sad

[@jes3d]

ty joe!

[@Arokhantos]

Hey ThioJoe how many computer screens tablets phones you have ever owned or send back that had a dead pixel ?

[@IDontModWTFz]

I thought I seen this before. Love watching Emderman or FlyTech

[@sodiboo]

0:47 chrome:// does not belong to a program, it's any part of the browser chrome (i.e. everything that isn't the webpage, such as the tabbar and the settings page) some browsers may use their own for most user-facing parts (about:preferences in firefox, edge://settings), but google chrome was named after this UI concept and the scheme chrome:// is also used for user-facing parts

[@Quasihamster]

"Why is there chrome in your adress bar, Seymour?" "Oh, this isn't chrome, it's steam! Steam, from the steamed URLs we're having! Hmmm, steamed URLs!"

[@pvpnoob]

Wonderful video

[@Kadencabs]

i was wondering about this

[@todor2270]

Thanks bro

[@toranshaw4029]

I'm rather surprised that you didn't mention the classic (old) protocol gopher:// or its modern equivalent gemini://.

[@toby3084]

I was looking in the comments to see if anyone else was thinking that

[@toranshaw4029]

@@toby3084 guessing that no one else has?

[@toby3084]

@@toranshaw4029 not from the comments I read

[@biplop.bb25]

love ur contents

[@gorbulevsv]

Thanks, cool.

[@71thelegend]

thanks bro

[@Pedritox0953]

Very interesting

[@little-wytch]

Not sure why this video popped up on my dash, being a year old lol but it's a very interesting intro to the concept of protocols. Do you think you'll do a follow-up to explain some other protocols in greater detail to help people explore parts of the internet outside of the commercialized web that most people think of as the internet? I mean protocols like FTP and Gopher, both of which still get used sometimes, or Gemini which is a more modernized version of Gopher. Protocols like telnet, scp, and ssh are also worth covering. I think it's time for people to remember that the Internet is much more than just the web.

[@PabTSM-OfficialChannel]

"Then it will pass that info to Steam" **shows spotify logo**

[@PerpendicularFlight5]

Thanks I always what are these

[@ahsanrafiqueofficial]

Good working great

[@MadScientist267]

"Tells the browser what protocol or type of content..." No, specifies the language used to communicate with the server in question...

[@Sandromatic]

That's what a protocol is. The language used to communicate.

[@bushlshd]

Gamebanana uses this to have install buttons on the pages of some mods that open the corresponding mod loader and install the mod

[@nepsoundfont4035]

The epic games launcher app has its own web protocol that functions very similar to steams desktop shortcuts except epic shortcuts store a bit more data such as the action to perform usually to launch the game normally, but also if the shortcut should open the launcher window

[@BattousaiHBr]

5:58 i wonder which website you got that from haha

[@AbhijayTank]

would you make a video covering synology

[@ratajs]

How can you not mention FTP?

[@Lovuschka]

I guess because the video is about "weird" protocols. FTP is not weird.

[@pcuser80]

I made my own protocols for a remote program i have made, that is very simple.

[@LEECHINLEONG0705]

Nice

[@Welpit]

Hello this vid is very good

[@ManasGhaiCode]

nice video

[@ggato]

Nice vid!

[@marcosd8733]

I tried to create my own protocol before the video mentioned that it was possible just to create by copying, and I managed, when I came back I heard him talk about.

[@MustafaKulle]

What are your thoughts on the Gemini protocol?

[@xaveforum4all0]

I used when XP was the latest os of Microsoft IE (internet explorer) as main explorer because of that XP doest had Address Bar. with using the IE of that time i had the Address Bar for the default explorer.

[@corporate.security]

I like this content.

[@frod0r]

I was curious how it works in Linux, as it has no such thing as a registry. Apparently it works via mimetipes. I only knew they are used to figure out which program to use to open a given file - the more you know

[@kevinhawthorne5257]

Good video

[@technicalshubhojeet6856]

Nice video 🔥🔥🔥

[@BARAAGAMER_YT]

You're creative keep going✨✨✨✨✨.. Sender:your brother (Baraa) from Palestine 🇵🇸🇺🇸

[@laylabranom5494]

Man, I was subbed to this channel.. And then KZbin unsubbed me. Thank God for the algorithm putting this channel back under my nose since KZbin decided to mess with my subscriptions.

[@mrrfyW_]

Neat video.

[@HolarMusic]

you actually don't have to go to the Registry to edit protocol associations, there's a page in settings for that

[@pyp2205]

A lot of browsers have the same kind of url like chrome. Like Brave, Edge, and Opera. So for brave it will be "brave://", edge will be "edge://”, and opera will be "opera://". Also you know the dinosaur game Easter egg. Which in Chrome it's "chrome://dino", but this easter egg does exist in other Chromium browsers (try it you will be surprised). Edit: The Chrome Easter egg works on Brave, but it doesn't seem to work on Edge anymore.

[@syxioyt]

lol

[@SFSAtlas]

Firefox is the outlier and uses about: for everything

[@pyp2205]

@@SFSAtlas Yep I figured it out on my own, when I tried to enable flags on the browser. I had to look up how to go to the flags menu and I saw that it's "about:config" instead of "firefox://flags”.

[@starmobiletech5161]

important info

[@Ow0cast]

thio: 'most hide it and only show it when you click on it' me: laughs in firefox

[@eramsorgr]

12:22 channel og's will remember this console

[@MaiderGoku]

You visited a malware website for teaching us knowing the risk. Appreciated the risk and effort.

[@PrograError]

it's not really malware if you know what to look for... but ya... that site is better avoided nowadays... (too much clones anyways)

[@MaiderGoku]

@Him pirates bay, and the clones themselves are more malicious than the original one.

[@MaiderGoku]

@Him Information coming from (Illiterate and malicious malware spreading/sharing people that malicious website is actually safe) Person. Argument ended, no point in more conversation people who viewed this can take this honest advice or be sucked into this malicious information from a malicious person. Your choice.

[@MaiderGoku]

@Him Great joke further illiterate person.

[@inkoalawetrust]

@@MaiderGoku Lol you literally just need to go to the main web domain with an adblocker and Windows Defender on and you are fine.

[@fattyOmar1785]

Hey Joe can you make a video of what happens if you go in task manager and restart windows Explorer in windows process without it open please

[@muhsin_sultan]

Hey thio, you posted on Instagram about creating SSL certificates for your local devices. Was it successful? Care to make a video?

[@factioncluster9016]

Hey man I want to move my windows from a HDD to a SSD can you make a video about it? I searched the web but there is no concise video talking about it would you mind to make one? Loved this video BTW 😅

[@paarthureddy2708]

Use cloning software.

[@bilbostabbins1882]

There's macrium reflect or some shit but it always pops up reminding you to update it like a cryware but hey its free

[@ananttiwari1337]

try a port of dd from Linux to Windows

[@baribari1000]

Wow! I thought that it was for programs (and also file:// for files) So in the basics I was right

[@pauldaugherty8611]

You should make one about how this works on mac and on Linux!!

[@laurinneff4304]

I don't know about macOS, but on Linux it's really simple. You just need to create a .desktop file in ~/.local/share/applications with these contents: [Desktop Entry] Name=some name Exec=some-command %u Terminal=false Type=Application MimeType=x-scheme-handler/some-scheme; This will also create a shortcut in your desktop environment's application launcher. If you don't want it, add "NoDisplay=true", or if you want to use s custom icon add "Icon=/path/to/image" Some other paths for the desktop file will work as well, for example applications installed system-wide will usually place it in /usr/share/applications, or if you create your own and want it to be system-wide the recommended path is /usr/local/share/applications

[@pacosninjatacoteam2884]

I imagine this would be useful for people who like to do everything through the command prompt. Or maybe you could write a program to use the browser as a commands prompt

[@redcrafterlppa303]

Or... You could just run the program through the command line. For "easy access" you can copy the program to or make a lnk file in system32 and execute any program you want.

[@Sohlstyce]

Enderman has done it, just google enderman custom chrome protocol

[@killertigergaming6762]

I don't think many people use command prompt for everything thats more common for linux where the cli is a lot better

[@Sohlstyce]

@@redcrafterlppa303 you don't need that, you just need to copy a program to your %path% and then you can use win+r and type your program name(parameters and arguments are supported) and run the program.

[@redcrafterlppa303]

@@Sohlstyce I'm not sure what solution is better. The path solution bloats this global variable. There should be 1 empty folder for the user to put these programs in. Like autorun