Pass args to an HTM on the iexplore.exe cmd line?

[Steve Herbst]

When asking IE to display an HTML page via a web server, I
can pass arguments to the page by following the file path
with "?" as in:

iexplore.exe "http://localhost/foo.htm?arg1=x&arg2=y"

The arguments arg1=x and arg2=y are passed in and foo.htm
can reference them by reading the URL (top.location).

However, if I give IE the pathname of an HTML file without
going by way of a web server (suppose I don't have one),
as in:

iexplore.exe "c:/foo.htm?arg1=x&arg2=y"

IE converts the question mark etc. to URL escape sequences
and does not recognize them as argument separators. It
returns an error message indicating that it can't find the
file whose pathname is:

c:/foo.htm%3Farg1%3Dx#26arg2#3Dy

Is there a way to force IE to not encode the argument
separator characters? Or, is there another way to pass
arguments to an HTML file via an IE command line without
using a web server?

Thanks!