Cannot see html pages LOCALLY STORED on Mac drive, using Parallels Desktop?

Whilst I do genuinely appreciate your reply, if you are not testing this from within Parallels Desktop like I am, and where I am having the problems, then your words here are not of much use.

Although "file://" may very well be the normal way to start the URL-path for locally stored files in Safari on Mac or Windows, from within Parallels Desktop it is understandably a very different matter.
When viewing files stored on the Mac part of a computer from within Windows running under Parallels Desktop, you're not REALLY looking at LOCAL files, because TRUE local files would be on the Windows section of the drive. Trying to view files on the Mac part of the drive from within Windows requires some "inter-networking" of its own special kind; hence the weird "\\.PSF\" part of the beginning of the URL that DOES work in Internet Explorer on Parallels Desktop.

The problem is that whilst Internet Explorer on Parallels Desktop WILL recognise this "\\.PSF\" starting point, Safari on Parallels Desktop will not.
I copy and paste this whole URL starting with "\\.PSF\" but Safari will not even attempt to load that URL - it automatically attempts to add "file:" to the beginning of it, even though it should not, according to the way that Parallels Desktop works with Mac-stored files.

Viewing ANY location on the Mac part of my drive with Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) also shows that location to start with "\\.PSF\".
The same applies to right-clicking and viewing the HTML file's Properties from within Windows Explorer.
That is obviously Parallel Desktop's way of connecting to the shared Mac section of my computer from within Windows.
This may not be a Windows-standard, or a Mac-standard, but it IS the way that Parallels works.

I am guessing that the reason it does not work in Safari is because Apple only had "TRUE" networks in mind for the build of this beta release, and forgot about the proprietary way that Parallels Desktop connects to shared folders.

Unless someone else knows otherwise...?

P.S: I am curious about the URL of your locally-stored file that you used above... I was under the impression that Windows used BACKslashes for LOCAL files, not FORWARDslashes (forwardslashes being for network files).
Doing Google Image searches for hi-res screenshots of other people's Windows Explorer windows seems to confirm this...
This is just one of many I found:
http://bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/download/attachments/33768/windows_explo rer.gif

Either way - forwardslash or backslash - the "\\.PSF\" issue still remains...

Thinking about it further, what I just said about Apple forgetting to include Parallels Desktop's proprietary path-connection settings in Safari is making more sense.
I say this because Safari on the Mac has always been "clever enough" (depending on how you like things to work) so that if you just write "apple" in its address bar and hit return, then by default it will automatically fill in the "http://www." part at the beginning and the ".com" part at the end (it uses the more common ".com" than ".co.uk" for example).
Trying this same trick in IE on Windows will instead do an internet search for the term "apple".
(I'm so used to it working this way on the Mac that when I DO work on Windows machines I forget about this and it annoys me when I don't get the result I was expecting in my browser window.
Anyway, I digress...)
Sooooooo, with that logic in mind, it stands to reason that the way it works is that if Safari gets an address typed into its address bar and that address does not begin with a recognised prefix, then Safari will automatically add its own.
Very clever. Or in cases like this, not so much.
I just wish Apple had thought about other prefixes rather than just the one "http://", or at least respected the prefix that I manually type in and not try to change it.

Again, thanks for taking the time to reply - but you're really really not paying attention to what I'm saying...

I AM giving Safari the full pathname, but when using Parallels Desktop, this full pathname begins with "\\.PSF\". That's how it starts. Nothing else before the two backslashes, OK. That's how it works in Internet Explorer when using Parallels Desktop. That's how it works in Windows Explorer when using Parallels Desktop.
I have given Safari the full pathname in FOUR different ways, as I mentioned in my original post: right-click, open with / file>open / drag-and-drop / copy-paste-URL.

With regards to my particular issue, I'm not concerned about how it works when using Windows running natively on a "proper" Windows PC. I am concerned about how it works when using Parallels Desktop.
If you really want to know the full URL (not that it matters one jot) of an example file that I can open with Internet Explorer, but not with Safari, here's the URL of the file I was originally trying to test:

\\.PSF\Macintosh%20HD\Work\Downie\Website\HTML\index.html

That's it. Everything is there. I have not left off anything at the beginning of that URL.
That's how it works in Internet Explorer when using Parallels Desktop. OK, re-read that. It works in Internet Explorer when using Parallels Desktop.

When I copy that URL exactly as it is, and paste it into Safari and hit return, Safari automatically converts it to:

http://.psf/Macintosh%20HD/Work/Downie/Website/HTML/index.html

Note how it has altered it in several respects:
- It has added "http:" to the beginning of the URL.
- It has turned the original "PSF" into a lower-case "psf".
- It has turned all the backslashes into forwardslashes.

I try manually deleting and altering the relevant parts and hitting return again, but Safari just goes back to the "wrong URL".

When you say "the only prefix for local files is file://" you are obviously not familiar with how Parallels Desktop works with and reads "local files".
Remember what I said earlier about how you're not REALLY looking at LOCAL files, because TRUE local files would be on the Windows section of the drive, and I am trying to look at files on the Mac part of the drive.

I'll repeat what I said earlier:
If you are not testing this from within Parallels Desktop like I am, and where I am having the problems, then your words here are not of much use, because you cannot experience what I am experiencing. You cannot comment on the experience on how this works from within Parallels Desktop if you do not have Parallels Desktop and have not experienced it yourself.

Here's some more info to further confuse the issue...

Noticing the differences between Safari's interpretation of a local URL and Internet Explorer's interpretation of a local URL, both using Parallels Desktop, I decided to see how Firefox would handle viewing a file on the Mac, going through Windows running on Parallels Desktop.

As I mentioned in the post above, the URL for the Mac-based "local" file that IE gives me is:

\\.PSF\Macintosh%20HD\Work\Downie\Website\HTML\index.html

After downloading and installing Firefox, however, the exact same file, when viewed using Firefox (going through Windows running on Parallels Desktop), has the following as its URL:

file://///.PSF/Macintosh%20HD/Work/Downie/Website/HTML/index.html

This URL does have "file:" at the beginning, but it also has FIVE forwardslashes after that!
Weird, yes, I know, but all I care about though is that it does work. I can see the HTML page rendered just fine.

Attempting to make use of this copied-and-pasted URL in Safari brings me no joy, however. It does not work and I get the same error message.
Even though I paste the above URL into Safari's address field, Safari automatically alters it into it's own version, that being:

file://.PSF/Macintosh%20HD/Work/Downie/Website/HTML/index.html

Which is slightly different from the URL it composes of its own accord when using the copied-and-pasted URL from IE, which I'll remind you was:

http://.psf/Macintosh%20HD/Work/Downie/Website/HTML/index.html

The difference being "file://" as opposed to "http://". Either way, no version of any Mac-section "local" file's URL seems to work in Safari on Windows running on Parallels Desktop.

2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 17" MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.9) 2 GB RAM

If anyone else wants to reply or to contribute to this discussion, I'll re-iterate one final time:

I don't care how any browsers read local files when using Windows booted natively and directly from the hard drive.

I don't care how any browsers read local files when using Mac OS.

All I am concerned about here is how Safari running under Windows virtualisation through Parallels Desktop reads files stored on the Mac portion of the hard drive.

Anything else is of no use in helping solve the original problem that was posed at the start of this discussion.

I am guessing that PSF stands for " Parallels Shared Folder" - which is what the Mac section of the computer is by definition under Parallels' Windows.
Safari needs to accept what it is typed into its address bar regardless, and not try and alter it.

Interesting point dwallin. I hadn't thought to try opening locally stored files from the Windows section of my Mac.

But having read what Andy had to say above, specifically:

I've tried to replicate your issue as best I could (by saving this page to my desktop, then opening it) and my file opens fine, with the path file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/*****/Desktop/test.html

It seems that it IS working for him on a "true" Windows set-up.

Anyway, trying it for myself using Safari-for-Windows, running under Parallels Desktop, and trying to access an HTML file on the Windows portion of the drive (that I copied over from the "shared Mac folder"), it DOES work for me too:

The URLs the 3 browsers read are as follows:

Internet Explorer:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\Downie\index.html

Firefox:
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Administrator/Desktop/Downie/index.html

Safari:
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Administrator/Desktop/Downie/index.html

So for me, it IS only an issue with files on the Mac side of the drive.

It was interesting to note that Safari STILL would not open the files with the "right-click > Open in Safari" method, but would ONLY work with a drag-and-drop or a "File > Open".

P.S: With regards to where you said "if I wanted to use Safari, I'd use the Mac version" - I would too. But I wanted to compare the two to see if browsing and rendering on them was the same.