diff --git a/extensions/markdown/src/previewContentProvider.ts b/extensions/markdown/src/previewContentProvider.ts
index 12d8351ccbe87a6f2428ce11ba355cf1ef9aff36..6ab2a24d5de3fdf7eab5080301a822684f607ba3 100644
--- a/extensions/markdown/src/previewContentProvider.ts
+++ b/extensions/markdown/src/previewContentProvider.ts
@@ -65,8 +65,9 @@ export class MDDocumentContentProvider implements vscode.TextDocumentContentProv
 		}
 
 		// Use href if it is already an URL
-		if (['file', 'http', 'https'].indexOf(vscode.Uri.parse(href).scheme) >= 0) {
-			return href;
+		const hrefUri = vscode.Uri.parse(href);
+		if (['file', 'http', 'https'].indexOf(hrefUri.scheme) >= 0) {
+			return hrefUri.toString();
 		}
 
 		// Use href as file URI if it is absolute