A quick post on Java Web Start links and something you might want to consider when deploying out a shortcut to your environment.

In my current environment with Win7, IE9 and Java installed when a user types in a java web start url (.jnlp)  into IE, the file is downloaded and the java application is started.

However, if I publish a IE shortcut to the user with the url as a parameter, when the user clicks on the shortcut IE is launched, the View Downloads dialog opens and then the java application starts. The obvious unwanted side effect being the View Downloads dialog remaining open alongside the application. Its undesirable and very  users will start to raise tickets.

How to prevent the View Downloads dialog from appearing? Well, why not publish a shortcut that launches java web start directly, with a parameter to the .jnlp file. Eg,

<path to java bin>\javaws.exe http://path.to/java/web/start/file.jnlp

Try it! Any alternatives? Let me know.