Open local file or directory in Windows Explorer from web-application in IE9 (Intranet)

We have built an intranet web-application (that is only used inside the company - so security issues do not matter!). We have several situations, where we have a link in a web-application (Java/Servlets) that should access a local dire开发者_开发技巧ctory on the local filesystem. When clicking on the link a windows explorer instance should open with given a directory open.

This was no problem as far as IE7 (or IE6? I'm not sure). But since IE8 and now in IE9 we don't get it to work! Probably security issues are leading to this behaviour of IE9!

But we're using this solution only in the intranet - I want to open local files and open local directories. There must be a solution to do this?! Maybe a registry-patch or any hidden property in the IE9-Config? By the way: I have added "localhost" to the intranet zone and set the security zone to "very low" - but that didn't help...

I Didn't find any hint so far googling around...

Many Thanks for your help and experience!