Python webbrowser.open() to open Chrome browser

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According to the documentation http://docs.python.org/3.3/library/webbrowser.html it’s supposed to open in the default browser, but for some reason on my machine it opens IE. I did a google search and I came across an answer that said I need to register browsers, but I’m not sure how to use webbrowser.register() and the documentation doesn’t seem to be very clear. How do I register Chrome so that urls I pass to webbrowser.open() open in Chrome instead of IE?

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Answers:
Method 1
Method 2
Method 3
Method 4
Method 5
Method 6
Method 7
Method 8
Method 9
Worked for me in windows
Method 10
Method 11
Method 12
Method 13
Method 14
Method 15
Method 16
Method 17
Method 18
Method 19
Sending a signal to change the tab
and again use
Method 20

Answers:

Thank you for visiting the Q&A section on Magenaut. Please note that all the answers may not help you solve the issue immediately. So please treat them as advisements. If you found the post helpful (or not), leave a comment & I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Method 1

You can call get() with the path to Chrome. Below is an example – replace chrome_path with the correct path for your platform.

import webbrowser

url = 'http://docs.python.org/'

# MacOS
chrome_path = 'open -a /Applications/Google Chrome.app %s'

# Windows
# chrome_path = 'C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe %s'

# Linux
# chrome_path = '/usr/bin/google-chrome %s'

webbrowser.get(chrome_path).open(url)

Method 2

In the case of Windows, the path uses a UNIX-style path, so make the backslash into forward slashes.

webbrowser.get("C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe %s").open("http://google.com")

See: Python: generic webbrowser.get().open() for chrome.exe does not work

Method 3

import webbrowser 
new = 2 # open in a new tab, if possible

# open a public URL, in this case, the webbrowser docs
url = "http://docs.python.org/library/webbrowser.html"
webbrowser.get(using='google-chrome').open(url,new=new)

you can use any other browser by changing the parameter ‘using’ as given in a link

Method 4

worked for me to open new tab on google-chrome:

import webbrowser

webbrowser.open_new_tab("http://www.google.com")

Method 5

Please check this:

import webbrowser
chrome_path = 'C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe %s'
webbrowser.get(chrome_path).open('http://docs.python.org/')

Method 6

Here’s a somewhat robust way to get the path to Chrome.

(Note that you should do this only if you specifically need Chrome, and not the default browser, or Chromium, or something else.)

def try_find_chrome_path():
    result = None
    if _winreg:
        for subkey in ['ChromeHTML\shell\open\command', 'Applications\chrome.exe\shell\open\command']:
            try: result = _winreg.QueryValue(_winreg.HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, subkey)
            except WindowsError: pass
            if result is not None:
                result_split = shlex.split(result, False, True)
                result = result_split[0] if result_split else None
                if os.path.isfile(result):
                    break
                result = None
    else:
        expected = "google-chrome" + (".exe" if os.name == 'nt' else "")
        for parent in os.environ.get('PATH', '').split(os.pathsep):
            path = os.path.join(parent, expected)
            if os.path.isfile(path):
                result = path
                break
    return result

Method 7

One thing I noticed and ran into problems with were the slashes, in Windows you need to have two of them in the path an then this works fine.

import webbrowser
chrome_path = "C://Program Files (x86)//Google//Chrome//Application//Chrome.exe %s"
webbrowser.get(chrome_path).open("https://github.com/")

This at least works for me

Method 8

you can also use this:

import webbrowser

chrome_path = r"C:Program FilesGoogleChromeApplicationchrome.exe"
url = "http://docs.python.org/"

webbrowser.register('chrome', None, webbrowser.BackgroundBrowser(chrome_path))
webbrowser.get('chrome').open_new_tab(url)

Method 9

Worked for me in windows

Put the path of your chrome application and do not forget to put th %s at the end. I am still trying to open the browser with html code without saving the file… I will add the code when I’ll find how.

import webbrowser
chromedir= "C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe %s"
webbrowser.get(chromedir).open("http://pythonprogramming.altervista.org")

>>> link to: [a page from my blog where I explain this]<<<

Method 10

If you have set the default browser in windows then you can do this:

open_google = webbrowser.get('windows-default').open('https://google.com')

// OR

open_google = webbrowser.open('https://google.com')

Method 11

Made this for a game I play, it was relevant so i’m leaving it. It’s real simple. Grabs the value from platform.system. Checks it against known values for different operating systems. If it finds a match it sets the chrome path for you. If none are found it opens default browser to your link. Hope its useful to someone.

import time
import os
import webbrowser
import platform

user_OS = platform.system()
chrome_path_windows = 'C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe %s'
chrome_path_linux = '/usr/bin/google-chrome %s'
chrome_path_mac = 'open -a /Applications/Google Chrome.app %s'
chrome_path = ''
game_site_link = 'https://www.gamelink'

if user_OS == 'Windows':
    chrome_path = chrome_path_windows
elif user_OS == 'Linux':
    chrome_path = chrome_path_linux
elif user_OS == 'Darwin':
    chrome_path = chrome_path_mac
elif user_OS == 'Java':
    chrome_path = chrome_path_mac
else:
    webbrowser.open_new_tab(game_site_link)

webbrowser.get(chrome_path).open_new_tab(game_site_link)

I actually changed it some more here it is updated since I am still working on this launcher

import time
import webbrowser
import platform
import subprocess
import os
import sys

privateServerLink = 'https://www.roblox.com/games/2414851778/TIER-20-Dungeon-Quest?privateServerLinkCode=GXVlmYh0Z7gwLPBf7H5FWk3ClTVesorY'
userBrowserC = input(str("Browser Type: chrome, opera, iexplore, firefox : "))
userSleepTime = int(input("How long do you want it to run?"))
if userBrowserC == 'opera':
    userBrowserD = 'launcher.exe'
else:
    userBrowserD = userBrowserC

if userBrowserC == "chrome":
    taskToKill = "chrome.exe"
else:
    taskToKill = "iexplore.exe"

if userBrowserC == 'chrome' and platform.system() == 'Windows':
     browserPath = 'C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe %s'
elif userBrowserC == 'chrome' and platform.system() == 'Linux':
    browserPath = '/usr/bin/google-chrome %s'
elif userBrowserC == 'chrome' and platform.system() == 'Darwin' or 
platform.system() == 'Java':
    browserPath = 'open -a /Applications/Google Chrome.app %s'
elif userBrowserC == 'opera' and platform.system() == 'Windows':
    browserPath = 'C:/Users/'+ os.getlogin() +'/AppData/Local/Programs/Opera/launcher.exe'
elif userBrowserC == 'iexplore' and platform.system() == 'Windows':
    browserPath = 'C:/Program Files/internet explorer/iexplore.exe %s'
elif userBrowserC == 'firefox' and platform.system() == 'Windows':
    browserPath = 'C:/Program Files/Mozilla Firefox/firefox.exe'
else:
    browserPath = ''
while 1 == 1:   
    subprocess.Popen('SynapseX.exe')
    time.sleep(7)
    webbrowser.get(browserPath).open_new_tab(privateServerLink)
    time.sleep(7)  
    os.system('taskkill /f /im '+taskToKill)
    time.sleep(userSleepTime)

Method 12

if sys.platform[:3] == "win":
    # First try to use the default Windows browser
    register("windows-default", WindowsDefault)

    # Detect some common Windows browsers, fallback to IE
    iexplore = os.path.join(os.environ.get("PROGRAMFILES", "C:\Program Files"),
                            "Mozilla Firefox\FIREFOX.EXE")
    for browser in ("firefox", "firebird", "seamonkey", "mozilla",
                    "netscape", "opera", iexplore):
        if shutil.which(browser):
            register(browser, None, BackgroundBrowser(browser))

100% Work….See line number 535-545..Change the path of iexplore to firefox or Chrome According to your requirement…
in my case change path I Mention in the above code for firefox setting……

Method 13

I found an answer to my own question raised by @mehrdad’s answer below. To query the browser path from Windows in a generic way @mehrdad gives a nice short code that uses the Windows Registry, but did not include quite enough context to get it working. 

import os 
import winreg
import shlex

def try_find_chrome_path():
    result = None
    if winreg:
        for subkey in ['ChromeHTML\shell\open\command', 'Applications\chrome.exe\shell\open\command']:
            try: result = winreg.QueryValue(winreg.HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, subkey)
            except WindowsError: pass
            if result is not None:
                result_split = shlex.split(result, False, True)
                result = result_split[0] if result_split else None
                if os.path.isfile(result):
                    break
                result = None
    else:
        expected = "google-chrome" + (".exe" if os.name == 'nt' else "")
        for parent in os.environ.get('PATH', '').split(os.pathsep):
            path = os.path.join(parent, expected)
            if os.path.isfile(path):
                result = path
                break
    return result

print(try_find_chrome_path())

Thanks for the answer @mehrdad !!

Method 14

When you have an invalid URL (make sure that the url starts with https:// or http://, and if it doesn’t, add it), it generally opens defaults IE.

Method 15

Something like this should work:

from selenium import webdriver
#driver = webdriver.Firefox()
driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get("http://www.python.org")

Method 16

believe me or not this is the easiest way to do

webbrowser.open("www.stackoverflow.com")#just remove https:// or http:// and simply add www.something.com

take this url for example

https://something.com

if you will give this url: https://something.com or something.com
it will be opened in IE

But if you will type it in this way: www.something.com
it will be opened in chrome

You can try this and this will work!

(NOTE: If it has some another suffix like take https://meet.google.com for example if you try to add www. to it, your browser will throw a typo error )

Method 17

I think I found a workaround too

  • Method 1 ( replace / with )
...
expression = "https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22445217/python-webbrowser-open-to-open-chrome-browser"

if ("https:" in expression) or ("http:" in expression):
    expression = expression.replace("/", "\")
    web.open_new_tab(expression.strip())
...
  • Method 2 ( use www as many of u suggested )
...
expression = "www.python.org"

if "www." in expression:
    web.open_new_tab(expression.strip())
...

Method 18

Uhh…Hey You can Quickly Solve this Issue By adding https://
Lemme Show it Below –

import webbrowser
URL = "https://www.python.org"
webbrowser.open(URL)

Python webbrowser.open() to open Chrome browser

Method 19

In Selenium to get the URL of the active tab try,

from selenium import webdriver

driver = webdriver.Firefox()
print driver.current_url # This will print the URL of the Active link

Sending a signal to change the tab

driver.find_element_by_tag_name('body').send_keys(Keys.CONTROL + Keys.TAB)

and again use

print driver.current_url

I am here just providing a pseudo code for you.

You can put this in a loop and create your own flow.

I new to Stackoverflow so still learning how to write proper answers.

Method 20

at least in Windows it has to be enough and you do not have to take care about path to the browser.

import webbrowser

url = 'https://stackoverflow.com'

webbrowser.open(url)

Note: With the above lines of code, it only opens in windows defualt browser(Microsoft Edge).


All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0

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