diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/make-desktopitem/default.nix b/pkgs/build-support/make-desktopitem/default.nix
index ccceb23256b6..9cae8204c6a8 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/make-desktopitem/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/make-desktopitem/default.nix
@@ -108,11 +108,12 @@ let
   renderAction = name: attrs: renderSection "Desktop Action ${name}" (preprocessAction attrs);
   actionsRendered = lib.mapAttrsToList renderAction actions;
 
+  extension = if type == "Directory" then "directory" else "desktop";
   content = [ mainSectionRendered ] ++ actionsRendered;
 in
 writeTextFile {
-  name = "${name}.desktop";
-  destination = "/share/applications/${name}.desktop";
+  name = "${name}.${extension}";
+  destination = "/share/applications/${name}.${extension}";
   text = builtins.concatStringsSep "\n" content;
   checkPhase = ''${buildPackages.desktop-file-utils}/bin/desktop-file-validate "$target"'';
 })