Changing browser associated with html files on Krusader

When I moved from Windows being my default OS to Ubuntu Linux, the thing that I missed the most was Total Commander. Over the years it got so that if I ever found myself on a computer that didn’t have it, I could immediately feel my productivity getting a hit.

On Ubuntu, I used Gnome so the natural replacement for Total Commander was Gnome Commander. Gnome Commander is OK, but it wasn’t a natural replacement for Total Commander and I didn’t feel completely at home with it. I also played with muCommander, which I still use on my Mac OS/X, but at the time it still wasn’t quite there.

I finally found and settled with Krusader. Installing Krusader requires all its’ KDE dependencies but it is well worth it.

So much for the background. I’ve recently been developing some stuff using HTML5. Whenever I’d hit Return or double-click a file with an html extension, Konqueror would launch to display it. The problem is that Konqueror does not do HTML5. I needed to change the associated application for html files but after searching high and low in the Krusader options, I found no way to do this.

The answer was that the file associations aren’t handled by Krusader but by the KDE system settings, and to change those I had to install and launch the KDE application that does that:

sudo apt-get install systemsettings
systemsettings

The first time you launch systemsettings it might whine about not having anything to display. Just close it and run it again. When it opens, click on the icon named “File Associations”. In the text box where it says “Find file type or filename” type “html”. Click the “text” type and select the “html” subtype. On the right you will see the Application Preference order (see below).

KDE system settings
KDE system settings

Select the browser you’d like to be launched when double clicking an html file from Krusader and using the “Move Up” button, click it all the way to the top. Don’t forget to click “Apply”.

Open Krusader again and you’re set to go.

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