How to change programs used
as default?
Question: I have installed another web browser. How do I
change it so that it is the one used as default?
Answer: Edit /etc/defaultprograms with your favorite text
editor and change the entries there. To change default browser
from "
seamonkey-spot" to firefox (without spot), for
example, change the DEF_BROWSER entry in that file and replace the
text within quotes. You can do the same for the rest of the
applications listed there: draw, html editor, paint, media player,
etc.
Since Fatdog64-710 Beta you can also use “Fatdog64 Edit Default
Programs” GUI available in Control Panel on “Desktop” tab. This
method changes the default applications on per-user basis
(~/.fatdog/defaultprograms).
Note: Doing this will only change the defaults for programs
that honour Puppy-like model of default programs.
Unfortunately there are no single unified way to change the
"default" programs unless you run a comprehensive desktop
environment like KDE or Gnome. Every program has its own way of
keeping track of what it thinks as the
default.
XDG-compliant programs, for example SpaceFM, make use of
/usr/share/applications/mimeapps.list and
/usr/share/applications/defaults.list (see
http://standards.freedesktop.org/mime-apps-spec/mime-apps-spec-1.0.html
for details). Other file managers like XFE or ROX-Filer has its
own way of keeping default programs. You will have consult the
documentation of each individual program if the method described
above doesn't seem to work.