links to local files

I am now up and running a standalone desktop MoinMoin wiki, version 1.9.6.  To connect, I use the url

   http://localhost:8080

My goal for this wiki is entirely personal: want to be able to find information and files useful to me.  I have many links to external files and websites, but cannot get similar links to files on my local machine set up the way I want.  For instance, if I have a .pdf file already on my hard drive, I don't want to have to move it to an attachments directory down deep within the data directory.  What I have done so far is put a simlink in the attachments directory linking to the file's actual location.  I'd rather have things set up to completely mimick a link to a pdf on some non-local server, as in

   file:///path/pdfFileName.pdf

Is there a way to do this?  I've poked around, and it seems there are security issues surrounding this kind of thing.  It seems people say this is a browser issue rather than an issue with MoinMoin.  But my browser will open files on my local machine when given a link such as the one above.  Moreover, given that mine is a standalone configuration, it seems to me what I do locally (in my MoinMoin configuration) isn't viewable/accessible from an external server.

A related (I think) question is how I can link to a local html file and display it.  In other words, why can't I mimick a link like

   http://www.google.com/index.html

with

   file:///path/localfile.html


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