> Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2015 14:24:18 +0300
> From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
> Cc: 20220@debbugs.gnu.org
>
> So I think the solution is to change w32-shell-execute to convert
> file:/// URLs into the normal file-name format internally, and use
> that in the call to ShellExecute.

Btw, until that change is made, you can make an equivalent change in
browse-url.el, e.g. by providing a trivial wrapper for
w32-shell-execute.  Then you will have the problem solved in the same
binary you already have.