Abstract: A system for storing a session cookie from another client application program, in which a separate client application is allowed to launch an external browser, and to supply a browser with a session cookie containing user specific session information. The browser is extended to support a new URI scheme providing for indication of a session cookie to be embedded into the browser, as well as an embedded URI to be processed by the browser after the indicated session cookie has been loaded into the browser. After the browser has been extended to handle the new URI scheme, a URI using the new scheme is passed to the browser as a command line parameter by a separate application program. The extended browser processes the new scheme URI, extracting the session cookie data and an embedded URI to be subsequently loaded. A client application separate from the browser may authenticate the user prior to the user requesting access to a secure Web page through the browser.