Launch IE for Windows Explorer from PHP Application in Chrome

I’m building a PHP web application that runs only using Google Chrome. The organization would like to be able to access certain folders via windows explorer. This is easy in IE using the file:/// protocol but I can’t seem to find a good solution using Chrome.

I’ve looked into registering custom protocol handlers but haven’t really found the answer I’m looking for there. This requirement is grained in stone; they do not want to access the files via web browser.

Does anyone know if there’s a way to launch windows explorer from google chrome either through a special protocol handler or by temporarily launching IE to get the file path to open? A simple method or example would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.