Setting default programmes is actually very simple and straight-forward. Open your user’s defaults.list. vim ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list Add lines formatted like this: <mimetype>=<desktop file> Here are some examples from my file. text/html=sublime_text.desktop text/plain=sublime_text.desktop x-scheme-handler/http=google-chrome.desktop x-scheme-handler/magnet=transmission-gtk.desktop The changes will be applied immediately.