Change the default File Manager in linux

The below code will setup nemo as the default file manager.

xdg-mime default nemo.desktop inode/directory application/x-gnome-saved-search
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons false
gsettings set org.nemo.desktop show-desktop-icons true

Output of xdg-mime query default inode/directory: nemo.desktop

Test: xdg-open $HOME This will open the home directory using the current default file manager.

If nautilus or any other file manager is still the default file manager or web browsers are still using the other file manager other than nemo then just rename the binary file.

In my case I wanted to replace nautilus to nemo so I renamed nautilus sudo mv /usr/bin/nautilus /usr/bin/natilus.bak

You can rename it back to its original name after if you want.

If everything fails then you can also replace nautilus all together by creating a sym link of nemo sudo ln -s /usr/bin/nemo /usr/bin/nautilus