URL Handler to replace an Applet

Currently my company has an applet that downloads a JAR file to open up and listen to changes in a chosen file, a .doc for example. Then, these changes are uploaded back to our server.

Applets are dying and that is a big problem for us. We thought (and still are thinking) of ways to replace this. JWS, Plugins, Adobe Air, Native Messaging, Active X. A lot of things were considered (and some tested with no luck, like the JWS). But now we are thinking that the best solution could be URL Handlers.

We would have a desktop application that could intercept a URL with the information of the file, download it and then listen for changes.

My questions are: Are we going in the right direction? I'm afraid of choosing another "soon-to-be-dead" technology. And can it be done (well) with Java? All of my actual code (the jar file) is in Java, and my intent was keeping it.

99% of our clients use Windows, so we could focus on that for now. We read some things about this subject but we are still unsure.