Parsing of URI / Network Share paths?

[Tweak589]

I cannot find this anywhere after digging all over these forums and on the web for an answer...

Can vBulletin automatically parse URLs that are network share paths and make clickable links that open in Windows Explorer?

I use my forum internally for software development and we all often link to our network share paths so people can quickly jump to a Windows Explorer path and browse files. Currently I cannot find a way to properly post such links (examples below) by trying to use the "file:///" prefix. I am guessing it is something to do with forward slashes vs. back slashes. Sometimes vBulletin will want to recognize such links as an http:// path, but it's hard to control this.

Most native MS Office applications will automatically parse these kinds of URLs and make a clickable link. I'd like to try and see if it can be done with vBulletin. I understand there is a security risk here and that even some browsers block such links. But I know this can be done!

Examples:

\\host\folder\path\to\the\network\share\file.jpg
\\host\folder\

Any help and/or insight would be GREATLY appreciated. I am using vB 4.2.0 PL2.

--------------- Added [DATE]1358450242[/DATE] at [TIME]1358450242[/TIME] ---------------

Also, I know that Firefox and other browsers (besides IE) do not allow such links and will automatically change the slashes as a security feature.

If anyone knows a way to solve all this it would be very helpful.