This might look like a duplicate of other questions, but it isn't.
I'd like to know how to set nautilus as the file manager....avoiding it to change anything else but the file management.
Thanks
yes I also prefer nautilus over thunar. use this command this will install nautilus without the junk.
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends nautilus
Then go to settings manager, preferred applications and replace thunar with nautilus