How can I force external links from browser-window to open in a default browser from Electron?

I came up with this, after checking the solution from the previous answer.

mainWindow.webContents.on('new-window', function(e, url) {
  e.preventDefault();
  require('electron').shell.openExternal(url);
});

According to the electron spec, new-window is fired when external links are clicked.

NOTE: Requires that you use target="_blank" on your anchor tags.

If you're not using target="_blank" in your anchor elements, this might work for you:

  const shell = require('electron').shell;

  $(document).on('click', 'a[href^="http"]', function(event) {
    event.preventDefault();
    shell.openExternal(this.href);
  });

I haven't tested this but I assume this is should work:

1) Get WebContents of the your BrowserWindow

 var wc = browserWindow.webContents;

2) Register for will-navigate of WebContent and intercept navigation/link clicks:

wc.on('will-navigate', function(e, url) {
  /* If url isn't the actual page */
  if(url != wc.getURL()) {
    e.preventDefault();
    openBrowser(url);
  } 
}

3) Implement openBrowser using child_process. An example for Linux desktops:

var openBrowser(url) {
  require('child_process').exec('xdg-open ' + url);
}

let me know if this works for you!