Making Wine Firefox the default browser

rstravis · Post by **rstravis** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 11:14 pm

OK, I see posts all over the place for the opposite problem -- people want wine apps to open their linux default browser. But I have the opposite problem. I use a piece of software (GradeQuick) that only runs on Windows (and Mac sometimes when it feels like it). But it runs by first opening the web page which called it (www.edline.net), and it will not run through Linux. So when I click, either on the link to the program or directly on the program itself, it opens my default browser, which is a Linux browser (I tried removing Linux Firefox, and then it opened Chrome), and goes to edline.net. From there it will not open the GradeQuick app. Very poor software design, but it's what my school district uses so I'm stuck with it. And I've managed to migrate everything else I do to Linux.

So how do I take my Wine version of Firefox and make that the default, or at least let GradeQuick think it's the default?

BTW, I'm running the Beta 2 version of Natty Narwhal, Kubuntu. (And, for the record, I had the same issues with both Gnome and KDE in Maverick Meerkat, so it's not just an issue with the beta).

Thanks in advance to any who can help.

oiaohm · Post by **oiaohm** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 11:32 pm

Really you want you default web browser to be native. I have useragent switcher installed in firefox all the time. That is enough to make a lot of website work that otherwise refuse.

The item you will be running into is wine default webbrowser. Called of all things winebrowser

from http://wiki.winehq.org/UsefulRegistryKeys
WineBrowser
|
+->Browsers
| [List of browsers that Wine will attempt to launch when running winebrowser
| command or clicking on a link in a Windows application. Default value is
| xdg-open,firefox,konqueror,mozilla,netscape,galeon,opera,dillo]
| +->Mailers
| [List of mail clients that Wine will attempt to launch when running winebrowser
| Default value is xdg-email,mozilla-thunderbird,thunderbird,evolution]

My problem I I don't know how to make WineBrowser load a wine browser.

I know 100 percent how to make it load what ever linux browser you like. Basically something has to be done to the Browsers reg key. I have never had todo it to make it go to a windows browser.

I also think if you run firefox inside wine and tell it to take default will override WineBrowser as well. Don't trust me on this. This is only from memory. And if this is the case would explain why I cannot remember how to change WineBrowser.

rstravis · Post by **rstravis** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 11:42 pm

I agree -- normally I want the default browser to be native. But I'm not against switching it for an hour or so to enter my grades each weekend, and then putting it back. But unfortunately, I have tried having Wine's Firefox set itself as the default browser, but as soon as I ran GradeQuick, it opened up a Linux browser again.

I'm trying to play around with the registry right now, but I'm not finding any reference to winebrowser. I'm determined to find a way to make it work, but I'm running out of ideas. Short of buying a whole new Windows copy to install in VirtualBox (which I'm not about to do -- my originally copy from my laptop won't install in VB), I don't know how else to make it work. But there must be a way.

oiaohm · Post by **oiaohm** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:41 am

Registry keys in wine don't exist while they are on default.

So you have to create them. rstravis ie refer to the http://wiki.winehq.org/UsefulRegistryKeys for exactly where the key has to be created.

DaVince · Post by **DaVince** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 9:50 am

rstravis wrote:I agree -- normally I want the default browser to be native. But I'm not against switching it for an hour or so to enter my grades each weekend, and then putting it back. But unfortunately, I have tried having Wine's Firefox set itself as the default browser, but as soon as I ran GradeQuick, it opened up a Linux browser again.

I'm trying to play around with the registry right now, but I'm not finding any reference to winebrowser. I'm determined to find a way to make it work, but I'm running out of ideas. Short of buying a whole new Windows copy to install in VirtualBox (which I'm not about to do -- my originally copy from my laptop won't install in VB), I don't know how else to make it work. But there must be a way.

Have you tried spoofing your user agent in a native browser, as suggested? That's the first thing to try in my opinion. It's certainly the simplest/most reliable method.

Johnatan · Post by **Johnatan** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:39 am

Hm, surpised me. I'd never thought that wine+firefox would be faster than the Linux version.. an issue to think of

FrÃ©dÃ©ric Delanoy · Mon Aug 22, 2011 2:44 am

On Mon, Aug 22, 2011 at 08:39, Johnatan <[email protected]> wrote:

Hm, surpised me. I'd never thought that wine+firefox would be faster than the Linux version.. an issue to think of

I'm not sure if it's still the case with recent versions of firefox (e.g. 7 b1)