“If you’ve been using the internet for a while, you’ve probably heard of Google Chrome. With its wide variety of features, privacy, and a huge selection of add-ons, Google Chrome serves as the browser of choice for both desktop and smartphone users.

Google Chrome is available on most platforms including Android, IOS, Windows, macOS and most Linux distributions.

With unparalleled features, you’ll no doubt want to switch from your default browser to Google Chrome. This guide is intended as a tutorial on how to make Google Chrome the default browser in Ubuntu.

We cover the installation method, how to make Chrome the default browser, and how to remove Chrome in case of errors.

It should be noted that for this tutorial we’re using Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, sudo apt-get purge google-chrome-stable, but the methods detailed in this guide shouldn’t differ much from other Ubuntu versions.

Installing Google Chrome on Ubuntu using Terminal

First and foremost, you need to make sure that Google Chrome is installed on your system. The installation method uses the Command Terminal. Although the procedure may look daunting, the installation process can be completed with just a few commands.

If Google Chrome is already available on your device, you can proceed to the next section. If not, follow these steps to ensure a smooth installation.

First, open the Command Terminal. The shortcut to open the terminal is Ctrl + Alt + T

Once the terminal opens, enter the following command:

This command ensures that all packages and repositories are updated to their latest versions.

Once the update is complete, enter the following command to download Google Chrome on your system:

This command will continue downloading Google Chrome. Wait for the download to finish and type the following to install Google Chrome

Wait for the installation to finish and voila! Google Chrome is now installed on your system. If this method didn’t work for you, you can try the GUI-based approach.

Installing Google Chrome on Ubuntu using Terminal

This method uses the Ubuntu graphical user interface. If you are using Windows, this method will look more familiar to you as the installation method is similar to Windows.

By default, Ubuntu comes with Mozilla Firefox installed. We will use it to install Google Chrome.

First, open Mozilla Firefox and type “Google Chrome” in the search bar. Alternatively, you can also click here to go directly to the download link.

Click Download Chrome. When asked if you want to use .deb or .rem, select .deb as Ubuntu and choose “Accept and Install”.

Click Save File and press OK.

After the download is complete, double-click the downloaded file. A new window should appear. Click Install.

Wait for the installation to complete. With that, you should now have Google Chrome installed on your system.

When you launch Google Chrome for the first time, a window should appear asking if you want to set Google Chrome as the default browser. Check this box and choose OK.

If you already had Chrome installed and want to make it your default browser, continue to the next step.

Make Chrome the default browser

Follow these steps to make Google Chrome the default browser.

On your Ubuntu desktop, click on the Show Applications icon which should be in the bottom left corner of your screen and select Settings.

On the Settings menu, click Details ? Standard applications.

From the Default Applications menu, navigate to the Web category and select Google Chrome.

If you followed the steps correctly, you could say that you learned how to make Google Chrome the default browser on your system.

Remove Google Chrome from Ubuntu

In case you encounter errors or want to remove Google Chrome, you can do it with the help of command terminal.

Follow these steps to remove Google Chrome from your system.

First, open the Command Terminal on your system. The shortcut to open the terminal is Ctrl + Alt + T.

After opening the terminal, enter the following command:

This will update all packages on your system.

After the update completes, enter the following command:

Alternatively, you can use the following commands:

With that, you have learned how to remove Chrome from your system.

Conclusion

We hope this guide helped you learn how to make Chrome the default browser on Ubuntu. We have covered the methods of installing Chrome on Ubuntu. Then we covered the method of making Chrome the default browser in Chrome. With this we hope that you will have a wonderful experience with one of the best browsers available.