Opening Files with Default Application in WSL

Opening Files with the Default Application in WSL

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is a powerful tool that allows developers to run a Linux environment directly on Windows. With WSL, you can use popular Linux tools and applications natively on your Windows machine. However, one common challenge that developers face is opening files with the default application in WSL.

Understanding the Context

WSL runs a Linux distribution in a lightweight virtual machine (VM) that communicates with the Windows host through a virtual network. The Linux file system is separate from the Windows file system and has its own set of applications and utilities. When you double-click on a file in the Windows file explorer, it opens with the default application associated with that file type in Windows. However, this behavior does not apply to files in the WSL file system.

The Default Application in WSL

WSL has its own default application for each file type. For example, if you have installed the Wolfram Mathematica application in Ubuntu, it becomes the default application for opening .nb files in WSL. However, if you double-click on a .nb file in the Windows file explorer, it still opens with the default application associated with .nb files in Windows.

Changing the Default Application

You can change the default application for a file type in WSL using the xdg-mime utility. The xdg-mime utility allows you to query, list, and change the MIME type associations on your system. To change the default application, you need to know the MIME type of the file. You can find the MIME type by running the file command on the file.

$ file myfile.txt
myfile.txt: ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators

The MIME type for text files is text/plain. To change the default application for text files, you can run the following command:

$ xdg-mime default mytexteditor.desktop text/plain

Here, mytexteditor.desktop is the desktop file for your text editor. You can find the desktop file for your application in the /usr/share/applications directory.

• WSL has its own default application for each file type
• You can change the default application using the xdg-mime utility
• You need to know the MIME type of the file to change the default application

References

• xdg-mime Man Page
• Freedesktop MIME Applications Specification