Since version 2.10, GTK+ provides the #GtkLinkButton widget as a replacement for the GnomeHRef widget in the libgnomeui library. Porting an application from GnomeHRef to #GtkLinkButton is very simple. #GtkLinkButton does not have a default action for #GtkButton::clicked signal. So instead of simply creating the widget GtkWidget *button; button = gnome_href_new (url, ""); you will have to handle the activation of the #GtkLinkButton, using the ::clicked signal for instance static void link_button_clicked_cb (GtkWidget *widget, gpointer data) { const gchar *link; link = gtk_link_button_get_uri (GTK_LINK_BUTTON (widget)); open_browser_at_url (link); } /* ... */ GtkWidget *button; button = gtk_link_button_new (url); g_signal_connect (button, "clicked", G_CALLBACK (link_button_clicked_cb), NULL); If you have more than one #GtkLinkButton instead of connecting a signal to each one, you can use a "hook function" which will be called whenever a user activates a link button static void link_button_hook (GtkLinkButton *button, const gchar *link, gpointer user_data) { open_browser_at_url (link); } /* ... */ GtkWidget *button1 = gtk_link_button_new (uri1); GtkWidget *button2 = gtk_link_button_new (uri2); gtk_link_button_set_uri_hook (link_button_hook, NULL, NULL); Starting with GTK+ 2.16, it is no longer necessary to set up a uri hook manually, since GTK+ now defaults to calling gtk_show_uri() if no uri hook has been set.