Linux Mint: How to Configure Default Applications
When you double-click a file in your user directories, you expect it to be intelligently opened by the appropriate program. Linux Mint, like Windows, configures a set of default applications that are used to open certain types of documents. These defaults are generally fine, but if you install a new app and want to use it, you need to change which app the system uses by default.
Fortunately, managing the apps used to open a number of common file types is easy in Mint. You may not get the fine-grained control that Windows 10 offers, allowing configuration for a wide variety of file types, but it makes managing the system easier and less intimidating.
To manage your default apps in Linux Mint, press the Super key, type “Preferred Apps” and hit Enter.
Tip: The “Super” key is the name many Linux distributions use to refer to the Windows key or the Apple “Command” key, avoiding any risk of trademark issues.
Press the Super key, type “Preferred Apps” and press Enter.
The Preferred Application window contains a list of different file types and the associated default application for opening those file types. You can configure which application is used as a file browser, to open HTML and other web files, to open email-related files, to open documents, to open plain text files, to play music and video files, to view images , to open code files, view PDF documents, run terminal commands, and function as a calculator.
Each of these options has a default app next to it. You can select an alternative application by clicking on the drop-down box, which will generally contain suitable alternative applications for you to choose from.
If the desired application is not in the drop-down list, you can select it by clicking “More applications”.
If the app you want to use isn’t in the drop-down list, you can click “Other app” at the bottom of the drop-down options to choose from the full list of installed apps.
If the desired application is not in the drop-down list, you can select it by clicking “More applications”.