Category Archives: Labs

Posts about computer labs and classrooms at Williams College

Mac – Using Install command line to install packages

Posted on January 27, 2014 by

Some software can not be installed on the master image computer because it needs to be uniquely installed on each clone.  So rather then have to copy packages to each clone after imaging, why not put the packages in a … Continue reading →

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Mac – Apple Remote Desktop Hangs – Kill the process

Posted on December 22, 2013 by

Sometimes Apple Remote Desktop hangs on the remote computer and/or you get disconnected.  When that happens you can get the message “can not control remote computer because it is running Apple Remote Desktop or another administrative application”.  To “fix” this … Continue reading →

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Mac – Removing printers with command line

Posted on December 20, 2013 by

I use lpadmin -x to remove printers when needed as in: lpadmin -x Spencer-116-Color lpadmin can be used for a bunch of other chores.  See: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/Manpages/man8/lpadmin.8.html Interestingly, the -x option isn’t listed in the man page! See also: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20061203221317612 For … Continue reading →

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Windows – Change computer decsription from command line

Posted on December 20, 2013 by

Sometimes it’s useful to use the computer description field to store information like the the image version.  I typically do this in automated post imaging tasks, however, it is sometime necessary to manually reset this description field. The command line … Continue reading →

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Mac – Mt Lion – Disable Notification Center

Posted on November 27, 2013 by

With Mt Lion, Apple introduced a unified notification center application that alerts you to a number of things like email, etc.  Unfortunately, it also alerts you to recommended system updates. All of this is unwanted on lab/classroom computers. I have … Continue reading →

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Mac – Turn wireless on or off via command line

Posted on October 8, 2013 by

To control the network settings with the command line try: networksetup -listnetworkserviceorder Then: To display current state of wireless: networksetup -getairportpower <device name> Or to turn wireless off or on: networksetup -setairportpower <device name> <on off> For a longer description … Continue reading →

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Mac – Adding/Changing an icon for a file or folder

Posted on July 18, 2013 by

This is so easy that I forget how to do it !!! Cut and paste your image onto the icon in the top left hand corner of the “Get Info” window for a file or folder. For an example and … Continue reading →

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Mac – Add Login items – Startup programs for all user

Posted on June 28, 2013 by

On the mac to have an application start automatically for all users add the application to the file “loginwindow.plist” in /Library/Preferences. An example: <?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” “http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd”> <plist version=”1.0″> <dict> <key>AutoLaunchedApplicationDictionary</key> <array> <dict> <key>Hide</key> … Continue reading →

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Software – SPSS – Installer Blank Screen

Posted on June 26, 2013 by

There appears to be an incompatibly between some installers, like SPSS, and Java version 1.6.0_51.  The symptom is a blank screen when running the installer. Manually updating Java is the suggested fix. For details see the link at: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21641495

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