--- a/toolkit/components/viewsource/content/viewSourceUtils.js
+++ b/toolkit/components/viewsource/content/viewSourceUtils.js
@@ -183,24 +183,21 @@ var gViewSourceUtils = {
       aCallBack(result, data);
     }
   },
 
   // Returns nsIProcess of the external view source editor or null
   getExternalViewSourceEditor: function()
   {
     try {
-      let prefPath =
+      let viewSourceAppPath =
           Components.classes["@mozilla.org/preferences-service;1"]
                     .getService(Components.interfaces.nsIPrefBranch)
-                    .getCharPref("view_source.editor.path");
-      let viewSourceAppPath =
-              Components.classes["@mozilla.org/file/local;1"]
-                        .createInstance(Components.interfaces.nsILocalFile);
-      viewSourceAppPath.initWithPath(prefPath);
+                    .getComplexValue("view_source.editor.path",
+                                     Components.interfaces.nsIFile);
       let editor = Components.classes['@mozilla.org/process/util;1']
                              .createInstance(Components.interfaces.nsIProcess);
       editor.init(viewSourceAppPath);
 
       return editor;
     }
     catch (ex) {
       Components.utils.reportError(ex);