BUG: File Protocol URLs Do Not Work Correctly with # Fragments

• Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.0 for Windows NT 4.0
• Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.0 for Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

File protocol URLs with # (number sign) fragments do not work correctly in Internet Explorer 4.0x. This is true for URLs that point to HTML and non- HTML files. When navigating to a file URL with a # fragment, one of the following two problems may occur:

• The page is loaded, but the page is not scrolled to the # fragment.
• You get the following error message:

        xxx is not accessible
        This folder was moved or removed
  

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this bug and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

The # fragments are used to provide bookmark and parameter information within the URL. For example, you can use "http://host/filename.htm#bookmark" to instruct Internet Explorer 4.0 to load Filename.htm and scroll to "bookmark". This works correctly with the http protocol, but does not work with the file protocol.

This problem only occurs if you enter the file URL in the address bar of Internet Explorer. This problem does not occur if the file URL with the # fragment is used in an anchor tag or when setting the location.href property.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

If you have the Internet Client SDK installed in the directory C:\Inetsdk, typing the following in the address bar of IE results in one of the errors listed above.

   file:///C:/INetSDK/Help/inet0013.htm#positioning_0503000101000000

   file:///C:/INetSDK/Help/inet0013.htm