--- scripts/xdg-open
+++ scripts/xdg-open
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/sh
+#!/bin/bash
 #---------------------------------------------
 #   xdg-open
 #
@@ -382,7 +382,8 @@ open_generic()
     for browser in $BROWSER; do
         if [ x"$browser" != x"" ]; then
 
-            browser_with_arg=`echo "$browser" | sed s#%s#"$1"#`
+            IFS=' '
+            browser_with_arg=${browser//'%s'/"$1"}
 
             if [ x"$browser_with_arg" = x"$browser" ]; then "$browser" "$1";
             else $browser_with_arg;
--- scripts/xdg-email
+++ scripts/xdg-email
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/sh
+#!/bin/bash
 #---------------------------------------------
 #   xdg-email
 #
@@ -435,7 +435,8 @@ open_generic()
     for browser in $BROWSER; do
         if [ x"$browser" != x"" ]; then
 
-            browser_with_arg=`echo "$browser" | sed s#%s#"$1"#`
+            IFS=' '
+            browser_with_arg=${browser//'%s'/"$1"}
 
             if [ x"$browser_with_arg" = x"$browser" ]; then "$browser" "$1";
             else $browser_with_arg;
@@ -495,7 +496,7 @@ while [ $# -gt 0 ] ; do
             exit_failure_syntax "email address argument missing for --to"
         fi
         url_encode "$1"
-        options="${options}to=${result}&" 
+        options="${options}to=${result}&"
         shift
         ;;
 
@@ -531,7 +532,7 @@ while [ $# -gt 0 ] ; do
             exit_failure_syntax "text argument missing for --body option"
         fi
         url_encode "$1"
-        options="${options}body=${result}&" 
+        options="${options}body=${result}&"
         shift
         ;;
 
@@ -575,7 +576,7 @@ done
 
 if [ -z "${mailto}" ] ; then
     # TO address is optional
-    mailto="mailto:?"    
+    mailto="mailto:?"
 fi
 
 case $mailto in