Linking.openURL to open Explorer

[WilliamWelsh]

Is there a way to use Linking.openURL to open a folder via File Explorer or any file? I tried file:///${uri} but it says the URL cannot be opened.

[chrisglein]

file:// isn't called out as on the of the expected protocols from RN core: https://reactnative.dev/docs/0.71/linking#built-in-url-schemes
Internally for RNW we forward that to LaunchUriAsync. Which has more options... but local files aren't one of them:

You cannot use this method to launch a URI in the local zone. For example, apps cannot use the file:/// protocol to access files on the local computer. Instead, you must use the Storage APIs to access files.

It'd take more work to make RNW's implementation of Linking both smarter than RN core and smarter than UWP. But it also seems kind of reasonable. Can you open a feature request on the repo for us to evaluate?

In the meantime you'd need to direct this to your own native handling.