Introduction

I am working on a robot project with my brother. We share data (datasheets, pictures…) in a folder synchronized on dropbox. He only uses Windows and I am mainly using Linux (debian based distros with GNOME Desktop Environment to be precise). He tends to use Windows URL files to save web shortcut in a sharable way. But those files are not openable by default in Linux. I want to open those .url files with a simple double click.

Here is a way to automatically open Microsoft Windows URL shortcut file in Linux default browser.

MS Windows URL shortcut

A url file has the .url extension and look like this

[InternetShortcut]
URL=https://www.example.com/

Creating the right application

In order to automatically open .url files we need to create an “application” in GNOME. This will be a bash script and and .desktop file. This will create an “open with” entry in the selection menu.

create executable

Create the bash script in /usr/bin/mswin-urlfile and paste this content

#!/usr/bin/bash
if [ "$1" == "" ] || [ "$1" == "--help" ] ; then
  echo "$(basename "$0") URLFILE - opens a .url file in the default browser"
else
  sed 's/^BASEURL=/URL=/' "$1" | grep -m 1 '^URL=' | sed 's/^URL=//' | sed 's/\r//' | xargs xdg-open
fi

Then enable execution permission with

sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/mswin-urlfile

create application entry

To create an application entry in GNOME, we need to create a .dekstop file. create /usr/share/application/winurl.desktop and paste this content

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=WinURL
GenericName=WebBrowser
Icon=application-x-mswinurl
Comment="open msurl file in default browser"
Categories=Network;Utility;Viewer;WebBrowser
Keywords=web;url;windows;microsoft;win;ms;
NoDisplay=false

Exec=/usr/bin/mswin-urlfile %u
MimeType=application/x-mswinurl

select our new “application” to open URL files

Find a .url file with the file explorer;
right click on it and select “open with”;
scroll down the list and select “WinURL”;
enable “Always use for this file type” at the bottom;
finally click on “open”.

open with menu

Tadam! You can now open all .url files in your default browser by double clicking on it.

Sources

Comments

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Open Windows URL shortcut in Linux.