How can I display locally stored images on an internet website?

Question

i would like to display images on my website that are stored on a visitors local filesystem.

Assuming I have the location of the image on the visitors drive (e.g. c:\Documents And Settings\Ropstah\image.png), is it then possible for me to display this image in my internet website (e.g. www.website.com)?

The images won't seem to load when i use the following syntax (Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3 etc..):

<img src="file://c:\Documents and Settings\Ropstah\image.png" />

The images DO display if the .html file (which i use on website.com/index.html) is located on my local pc...

Answer 1

This sounds like security settings on the web browser, which are probably set to a level that prevents local filesystem access for an internet site.

Security settings can be edited by users, in a way specific to each browser. for example for IE it's Tools -> Internet Options -> Security

Answer 2

You can if the user sets your site to be in the Trusted zone.

Answer 3

You can't.

Stupidly, these browsers have decided to close "security holes" by not allowing public web pages to disable local content.

Answer 4

Using pure HTML you cannot access files stored on users' computers. You could instead use Flash, Java Applet, ActiveX, Silverlight, ...