Hi there everyone!
Here is a question from a confused newbie about file managers:
I am using Mint XFCE (love it)
I installed Mint Cinnamon, then downloaded XFCE and switched to that in login screen
Please look at the attached screenshot. It shows two windows:
LEFT - "File Manager" opening a folder (this is Thunar, right?)
RIGHT - opening "downloads" folder from Firefox (clicking on blue arrow showing progress of downloads, then on folder icon "open containing folder"

Looks to me like these are two different file managers - the look and menu options are different. I actually like the one on the right...is this the one from Cinnamon?
So does Firefox somehow opens the folder in some other manager?
Can I use that manager myself for folders?
Thanks!

Attached Thumbnails

 

You installed thunar. Kept Nemo. Firefox is gonna to default to using Nemo instead of Thunar. Problem solved.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi byebyemrgates,

One is Thunar and the other is likely the one that comes with Cinnamon (maybe Nautilus or Gnome Files ...). Both are file managers.

To identify them, go to menu item Help - About ... Should give you the answer ..

Cheers !

1 members found this post helpful.

Yes the one one the right is Nemo the default on cinnamon. And yes use which ever one you like, this is Linux

the one on the left is a filemanager.
the one on the right is a file-save dialog.
they likely use different gtk versions: 2 for thunar, 3 for firefox.
so it would seem that you are using a theme that doesn't cover both gtk versions, only 3.

I've used both of those, and the one on the right is not a file-save dialog, I use that file manager on a daily basis. file-save dialogs usually don't say file manager on the menu bar.

Great, thanks, everyone!
It is so good that I can access Nemo even though I am in XFCE. Nemo has better file sharing options in right-click Properties (xfce does not have "allow others to create files" toggle box which I needed to tick to share a folder with Network scanner; I had to log out and go into Cinnamon to fix that and then back to XFCE)

I discovered that in Application Finder in XFCE menu (looking-glass icon) I can find Nemo (type in "Nemo" - it shows as "Manage Files" but it is Nemo).
So I can use that when I need it.
Otherwise, I will stick with Thunar - I realized that it will require some work to make Nemo a default manager because the desktop still uses Thunar ... etc etc, it will take some work, And I don't have time...
Thanks, everyone!

Just a quick note that it is generally advisable for Linux Mint that if you want Xfce as your desktop, you install Linux Mint Xfce, not another flavour followed by installing the Xfce desktop component.

One reason for this is that the Xfce flavour has been set up and tuned, software-wise, specifically for Xfce.

You have already experienced some confusion due to having two file managers. You may also find other such problems, including duplicated entries in the system menu, some for the original Cinnamon, others for the newly installed Xfce. The problems won't be so great, because we're talking about two Gnome-derived desktop environments here, butthey may be enough to cause a newbie confusion (as we have already seen).

It's your call, of course, but if you really like Xfce, and think you'll stick with it, then I would advise installing Linux Mint Xfce from scratch.

1 members found this post helpful.

oh, you are right.
but the second half of my previous post is still correct i think.
or, actually, the colors look right, so maybe gtk2 is just missing a theming engine.
to investigate further we would need to know more about the theme in question.
but it seems op likes the other fm more anyway...