No registry hacking needed... From the output of 'start /?':

So all you have to do is pass system("start /b http:.....");

So all you have to do is pass system("start /b http:.....");

If the perl process is not running in a console window, then this won't work. A console window will be opened to run the shell for system(). This is before the actual command is parsed.

A perl process can be started without a console window (on MSWindows), by, for example, double-clicking a .WPL file.

#!perl -w
use Win32 qw(SW_SHOWNORMAL);
use Win32::API;
use strict;
my $shellexec = Win32::API->new('shell32', 'ShellExecute', 
  'NPPPPI', 'N') or die "cannot import ShellExecute: $!\n";

my $result = $shellexec->Call(0, "open", "http://perlmonks.org/", 
       "", ".", SW_SHOWNORMAL);
if ($result < 33) {
  print STDERR Win32::FormatMessage($result), "\n";
  exit(1);
}
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The right way to do it is to go through the Windows Shell. This will ensure you get the default browser without having to do any poking around in the registry.

	use Win32::FileOp qw(ShellExecute);
	ShellExecute('http://...');

(Note: Untested. Win32::FileOp is on CPAN.)

This works perfectly in ActiveState 5.8.7.

If you can always be sure that the browser will be IE, then you can use:

system( "iexplore.exe http://myurl.com" );
[download]

Failing that, you should be able to lookup in the registry the default association of .html files. I think it's this:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\shell\open\command]
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Otherwise, have a play with Regmon and see what keys are being queried when the default browser is started. You can then query the same keys in Perl and invoke that browser directly.

Update: Ah, jasonk has a much more simpler solution. But it's much more fun to have an purely Perl approach ;)

Execute 'http://foo.com/';
Execute 'mailto:me@foo.com';
...
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you're almost there: system("start http://$url") should do it...

Update: Ah, default browser. This may not be too helpful, then.

sub open_browser {
	my ($obj, $url) = @_;
#
# open the registry to find the path to the default browser
#
	my $cmdkey = $reg{ 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/' . 
		$reg{'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/.htm//'} . 
			'/shell/open/command'};

	my $sysstr = $cmdkey->{'/'};
#
# replace the argument PH with our URL
#
	$url=~tr/\\/\//;
	$url = "file://C:$url"
		unless ($url=~/^(http|file):\/\//);

	$sysstr=~s/\-nohome//;
	
	if ($sysstr=~/%1/) {
		$sysstr =~ s!%1!$url!;
	}
	else {
		$sysstr .= " $url";
	}
	my $exe = $sysstr;
#
#	in case we get a fancy pathname, strip the
#	quotes
#
	if ($sysstr=~/^"/) {
		$exe=~s/^"(^"+)"\s+.+$/$1/;
	}
	else {
		$exe=~s/^(\S+)\s+.+$/$1/;
	}

# start the browser...
	my $browser;
	Win32::Process::Create($browser,
       $exe,
       $sysstr,
       0,
       NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS,
       '.'
       ) or die Win32::FormatMessage(Win32::GetLastError());

	return 1;
}