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I want to set Thunar as my default file manager. The answers given here and here did not help me.

For instance, I already have Thunar as the preferred File Manager

thunar_default

But when I use a dialog box to open a file, I still get Nautilus:

still_nautilus

So how do I set Thunar as the default file manager?

It may be the case that I do not understand what "being the default file manager" means. What I want is to use Thunar all around, as it would be (I think) expected when one changes the file manager to Thunar.

Here is some possibly relevant version information:

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS
Release:        18.04
Codename:       bionic

GNOME nautilus 3.26.4

Thunar 1.6.15 (Xfce 4.12)
DK Bose
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Sweet Shell O'Mine
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    I think your lower image may not be Nautilus but the GTK file chooser dialog which is common to all applications unless an application can use its own file chooser. (I'm not aware of such an application.) – DK Bose Jun 20 '19 at 10:47
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    @DKBose Thanks, I suspected that I didn't understand all that was going on, that's why I made a point to include that image. – Sweet Shell O'Mine Jun 20 '19 at 11:45
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    But that leaves me wondering, why do people even want a default file manager? The only time I use one is exactly when choosing a file in a dialog. If I want to browse my system with a GUI, I can just open the desired application directly. I see no advantage whatsoever to having it be default. – Sweet Shell O'Mine Jun 20 '19 at 11:47
  • I see what you're saying and never really thought about it! – DK Bose Jun 20 '19 at 11:53
  • Depends a bit on your working style. I work from within the file manager, launching files from there. You work from an application, opening files from within the app. And indeed, that is the GTK file open dialog you are then getting. – vanadium Jun 20 '19 at 14:11
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    @DKBose Libreoffice would be an example of an application that can use its own file chooser: you can indicate that in the options. Many applications, indeed, even QT applications, for example KDEnlive, nowadays neatly can use the default file chooser in a GTK desktop. – vanadium Jun 20 '19 at 14:12
  • did you find a solution this? There is also this very thorough answer to a similar question: https://askubuntu.com/a/1173861/690704 But, the instructions are for Nemo, and I would not know how to adapt them for Thunar instead. – kirk Nov 28 '19 at 11:48
  • @kirk Nope, I just gave up. I tend to use the command line more anyway. I'll take a look at that answer later. Thanks! – Sweet Shell O'Mine Dec 05 '19 at 18:05

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