macOS Default Browser Switcher

This is just a quickly thrown together project to get somewhat acclimated with interop support in .NET. I've never attempted something like this before, so it's mostly just a learning experience to understand how it works and also create my own tool for changing the default browser on macOS.

It also takes advantage of .NET Native AOT, so the compiled executable/binary has no requirement for the .NET runtime and has a faster startup time.

The core of the tool utilizes functions in the:

• Core Foundation Framework
• Launch Services API

Specifically for the purposes of getting and setting the default browser for macOS, I'm using two functions found in the Launch Services API:

• func LSCopyDefaultHandlerForURLScheme(_ inURLScheme: CFString)
• func LSSetDefaultHandlerForURLScheme(_ inURLScheme: CFString, _ inHandlerBundleID: CFString)

❗️ Heads up

Both of these functions are deprecated. They still work, but they can be removed in a future macOS release. There aren't, as far as I'm aware, any replacement functions.

As of macOS Sonoma (14.1.2), they still work.

🏗️ Building

🧰 Prerequisites

• A device capable of running macOS.
• .NET 8 SDK
• Command Line Tools for XCode
  • You can run xcode-select --install in a terminal console (e.g. Terminal.app) to install it.

📦 Compiling

In a terminal console (e.g. Terminal.app), run the following commands:

# Clone the 'SmallsOnline.MacOS.DefaultBrowser' repo.
git clone https://github.com/Smalls1652/SmallsOnline.MacOS.DefaultBrowser.git

# Enter the 'SmallsOnline.MacOS.DefaultBrowser' directory.
cd ./SmallsOnline.MacOS.DefaultBrowser

# Compile the CLI tool with one of the following commands

# If you're on a Mac that has a M-series chip (Apple Silicon):
dotnet publish ./src/ConsoleApp/ --configuration "Release" --output "./build" --runtime "osx-arm64"

# If you're on a Mac that has an Intel CPU:
dotnet publish ./src/ConsoleApp/ --configuration "Release" --output "./build" --runtime "osx-x64"

Once it's finished compiling, the browserdefault executable/binary file will be in the ./build directory.

🏃‍♂️ Usage

Get the current default browser

./browserdefault

Output:

URL Scheme | Bundle ID       
-----------+-----------------
http       | com.apple.Safari
https      | com.apple.Safari

Change the default browser

./browserdefault {{BROWSER_BUNDLE_ID}}

Replace {{BROWSER_BUNDLE_ID}} with any bundle ID (CFBundleIdentifier) for a web browser. These are some of the more common ones:

Web Browser	Bundle ID
Apple Safari	com.apple.Safari
Mozilla Firefox	org.mozilla.firefox
Google Chrome	com.google.Chrome
Chromium	org.chromium.Chromium
Microsoft Edge	com.microsoft.edgemac

For example, if you wanted to change your default web browser to Mozilla Firefox, you can run this:

./browserdefault "org.mozilla.firefox"

⚠️ Note

You will get a prompt, like the one below, when ran. In order for the change to take effect, you must click on the button for using the browser you specified.

🤝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.