You would think it would be fairly simple to script changing the default browser to Chrome in macOS. It's not, as far as I can tell! I'd love to be corrected on this.

Script that changes Launch Services

Mac make chrome default browser

I wrote up a script that changes the default browser silently, but it works well only the first time you run it.

Default

Make Chrome your default browser If you make Chrome your default browser, any links you click will open automatically in Chrome. Computer Android iPhone & iPad Set Chrome as your default web browser. Is there any way to set Chrome As default browser in Mac OS? May be I am asking this question is wrong platform, but if you know it please share it. We aimed to answer those questions with our comprehensive Mac web browsers group test. We pitted Safari against its main two contenders, Chrome and Firefox, in a series of grueling tests covering. A Mac user’s guide to the Google Chrome browser Though Safari is the default browser for most mac OS users, some have to use Chrome.

If you run it again to switch to another browser, you may have to reboot for the change to take effect. Sometimes changing the default browser through the GUI and then running the script again will have it work again.

Chrome

That means it's a bit messy. On the other hand, in terms of practical use, you're not likely to want to script changing the default browser multiple times on one machine—the whole point of scripting it is likely to just make an initial default the user can change later on her own should she choose to, and she can use the GUI to do that.

Default

If you want to use this in conjunction with Outset but not have the settings change for existing users (only new ones), you can use this preinstall script to fake-run the login-once script for each existing user.

Google chrome default browser mac

I think this is a great option (and not just because I worked hard on it), but I also outline below some other options.

cdef and defaultbrowser

cdef and defaultbrowser allow you to set the default browser. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, all that does is pop up the regular GUI 'set default browser' dialogue: Again, if someone knows of a silent option I don't know about, please leave a comment below, and I'll update this entry.

duti works great... but not for Chrome

In Using duti to script default applications for Macs, I detail the steps for using duti in general, which works great... in general. It just chokes on setting the default browser. If you try to use duti to set Chrome as the default browser:

com.google.chrome public.html all
com.google.chrome public.xhtml all
com.google.chrome http all
com.google.chrome https all

Make Google My Default Browser

you will get the error:

Set Default Browser Chrome Mac

failed to set com.google.chrome as handler for public.html (error -54)