Hedgerow
Linkfork

Linkfork help

Getting started

Links you click in other apps go to your default browser, so that's where Linkfork needs to be. Windows asks you to confirm this yourself:

  1. In the welcome tour, or in Settings › Default browser, select Make default.
  2. On the Windows Settings page that opens, select Set default (or pick Linkfork for HTTP and HTTPS).
  3. Come back to Linkfork. It notices on its own.

The first run also sets your fallback browser to the one that was your default before.

Linkfork lives in the notification area (the tray). Left-click the icon to open Settings. Right-click it for Always show picker, Pause rules (use fallback), Settings, About / License and Quit. Leave Start with Windows on to keep the picker instant; rules work even when Linkfork isn't running.

Using the picker

When no rule matches, a small picker shows your browsers and profiles as numbered cards.

  • 1–9, or the arrow keys and Enter, open the link in that browser.
  • Hold Shift to open it in a private window.
  • Type to filter the cards by name, and Backspace to clear.
  • Ctrl+C copies the link.
  • Alt+A ticks Always open here, which saves a rule for that site.
  • Esc, or clicking away, opens the link in your fallback browser.

If several links arrive at once, the picker handles them together. In Settings › General, choose when the picker shows (Only when no rule matches, Always or Never) and whether it opens near the mouse pointer or in the center of the screen.

Rules

In Settings › Rules, select Add rule and fill in the sentence: if the link matches, and it was clicked in an app (or any app), open it in a browser, optionally In a private window.

  • the domain is also covers subdomains: github.com matches gist.github.com.
  • the link contains looks for text anywhere in the link.
  • the link matches takes wildcards: * matches anything and ? one character, as in *.atlassian.net/browse/*.
  • it was clicked in takes the app's name, like slack. Leave it empty for any app.

The first matching rule wins. Drag rules to reorder them, or use Alt+Up and Alt+Down. Paste a link in Try a link to see where it would open. Export… saves your rules to a file and Import… loads them.

To skip rules for a while, use Pause rules in the tray menu or set a shortcut for it in Settings › General. If a rule's browser is uninstalled, its links go to the fallback browser and Linkfork tells you once.

Settings › Browsers lists the browsers and profiles found on your PC, in picker order. Turn one off to hide it from the picker, rename it, change its icon or move it. New browsers and profiles are picked up within a minute, or select Rescan.

For a portable browser, select Add a browser…, pick its program and add any extra arguments. The link is always passed last.

Under Open links in apps, meeting and app links (Zoom, Teams, Slack, Figma, Spotify, Notion and Discord) open straight in the app when it's installed. Turn off any you'd rather open in a browser. Slack links only open in the app when they include the workspace, as app.slack.com/client/… links do; others stay in your browser.

Settings › Link cleanup tidies links before they open. It all happens on your PC.

  • Strip tracking parameters (on by default) removes tags like utm_source, fbclid, gclid and msclkid that only exist to track you.
  • Unwrap redirect links (off by default) opens the real destination of Outlook and Teams Safe Links and redirect links from Google, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and others. Your organization may rely on Safe Links checks, so turn this on only if that's fine.

Short links aren't expanded, since that would mean looking them up online. Paste a link in Try it to see the cleaned-up version. Rules match the cleaned-up link.

Things Windows decides

  • Apps can't make themselves the default browser. Windows always asks you to confirm in Settings.
  • Some Windows updates reset the default browser. Linkfork shows a notification once, and clicking it takes you straight to the fix.
  • Only web links come to Linkfork. Email, phone and file links, and .html files on your PC, keep opening in their usual apps.
  • To stop using Linkfork, choose another default browser in Windows first, then select Remove registration in Settings › Default browser.

Trial and license

Linkfork is free to try for 14 days, with everything turned on. After that: Every link still opens, in your fallback browser. Rules, the picker, app links and cleanup turn off, but you can still view and export your rules.

Entering your license key

  1. Buy a license. Your key appears on screen as soon as the payment goes through, and arrives by email.
  2. In Linkfork, open the License page in Settings.
  3. Paste the key and choose Activate. The PC needs to be online for this step.

Using it on more than one PC

One key works on up to 3 PCs. To move it to a new PC, deactivate it on the old one from the License page first. If the old PC is gone, free up its place at Manage devices, using the email address you bought with or the key itself.

Once activated, Linkfork works offline. When it's online it checks the license about once a week, so a refunded or revoked key stops working on its next check.

Bought Linkfork in the Microsoft Store? The Store edition is licensed through your Microsoft account instead, and doesn't use a key.

Updates

To get the latest version, choose Check for updates in Linkfork. It asks before installing anything.

Each update is checked against a fingerprint (SHA-256) before it runs, and installs over the current version without touching your data. Updates for the Microsoft Store edition come through the Store.

See what’s new in each version.

Your data and uninstalling

Linkfork keeps its settings and data on your PC, in this folder (paste it into File Explorer’s address bar to open it):

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Hedgerow\Linkfork

To back it up, quit Linkfork and copy that folder.

To uninstall, open Windows Settings › Apps › Installed apps, find Linkfork and choose Uninstall. The uninstaller asks whether to remove your data too.

Still stuck?

Email support@hedgerowapps.com and we’ll get back to you. Mention your Linkfork version (shown in Settings › About) and your Windows version. More answers are on the support page.