On certain classroom/lab computers, on certain “field laptops”, and on dual-boot mac/windows configurations we may want to prevent Windows updates from running.
With Group Policy, this can be done in:
Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update
You must “Enable” this policy to have it enforced on the clients.
For more information see:
http://www.howtogeek.com/224471/how-to-prevent-windows-10-from-automatically-downloading-updates/
GateKeeper is the application on Mac OS 10.8 and above that prevents running applications from unknown sources. On the “Lab” image this can not be enabled since many of the older academic software programs would not be able to run.
Get current status of this setting: sudo spctl --status
Disable GatetKeeper to allow all apps to run: spctl --master-disable
Enable GateKeeper to prevent unknwon apps from running: spctl --master-enable
To see more see:
http://osxdaily.com/2015/05/04/disable-gatekeeper-command-line-mac-osx/
Even if you use the Chrome GPO for settings, you need to set this for the home page of choice …
There is a registry setting in :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome\RestoreOnStartupURLs
See: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/10128.tools-for-troubleshooting-slow-boots-and-slow-logons-sbsl.aspx
I really dislike a computer that tells me what I need to do so …
After sudo’ing
cd /System/Library/LaunchAgents
mv com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist com.apple.notificationcenterui_DISABLED.plist
Let’s see it tell me what I need to do now!!!!
Google Earth Pro is now free but when you load it is still wants you to register …
Use your email account at the username and GEPFREE as the license code.
For more details see:
https://support.google.com/earth/answer/176160?hl=en
On some computers like public access kiosks, you want to specifically lock certain firefox preferences so they can’t be changed. For a relatively easy way to do this, see the information at:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Locking_preferences
With Mavericks, Apple is moving farther away from AFP support. It’s time to change our AFP points in our Network Shares to smb pointers.
Two commands come in very handy to find and replace the needed text in the files …
perl -pi -w -e 's/afp/smb/g;' *afploc
perl -pi -w -e 's/ACHILLES.//g;' *afploc
perl -pi -w -e 's/HECTOR.//g;' *afploc
perl -pi -w -e 's/ATHENA.//g;' *afploc
perl -pi -w -e 's/HELEN.//g;' *afploc
perl -pi -w -e 's/JASPER.//g;' *afploc
Setting a “default” printer on Mac –
Printers are listed to the mac user on the drop down menu in alphabetic order so you need to add “A” to the beginning of the name of the default printer if the default printer isn’t already first in alpha order.
If printers are already installed you can change the name in the System Preferences – Printers – then “options” for that printer.
Or, if the printers aren’t installed yet, for Williams printer installer packages you can change the name in the packaged installer before you run the installer. To do that:
1) Right-click (or option-click) on the printer installer package and “Show Package Contents”
2) Open Contents
3) Open Resources
4) Open “postflight” with AquaMacs and edit the lpadmin line to add “A” to the default printer name
Example:
`lpadmin -p Spencer-216-Color -L '' -E -v http://print-mac.williams.edu:631/printers/Spencer-216-Color -P /etc/cups/ppd/Spencer-216-Color.ppd`;;
Becomes:
`lpadmin -p ASpencer-216-Color -L '' -E -v http://print-mac.williams.edu:631/printers/Spencer-216-Color -P /etc/cups/ppd/Spencer-216-Color.ppd`;;
A web page that might offer a solution:
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/82025/disable-office-for-mac-2011-first-use-registration