By default, the OS X help window automatically overlays other screens. I’ve now added to my lab imaging sequence to disable this as I use help windows from time to time but want other windows in the foreground when I command-tab to them. To make the change, write a DevMode key as boolean true into com.apple.helpviewer using the defaults command as follows: defaults write com.apple.helpviewer DevMode -bool true To disable: defaults write com.apple.helpviewer DevMode -bool false
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Automated Regression Testing Mac OS X Clients Using Sikuli
Imaging can be a complicated task. Many imaging environments have a lot of scripts, packages, base images and other aspects of automation. The more of these that you have, the more potential combinations you have for the state of a system once they’ve been run. This gets complicated when you want to make sure that each possible combination of images will have a consistent result when installed. For example, take something simple, like a property list. Each possible combination of packages, scripts images and even managed preferences might have a different impact on that poor property list. A simple defaults command can often give administrators the ability to see what…
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Making My NAS Work in Lion
Netatalk seems to always have some issue with OS X. Why I still use little NAS boxes for this that and the other is beyond me. I got stuck dealing with this for a little while and if you’re using Netatalk w/ a DHCAST128 UAM you probably will too. For more on DHCAST see the Netatalk page on UAM support. Kerberos and DHX2 are arguably better, but I’ve found they don’t always work right on some of my NAS boxes. This wasn’t just a quick defaults command as it was in previous instances. It’s not much of a script but the following should fix it if you’re having this issue…
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Fast User Switching
Fast User Switching, when enabled, allows users to leave one session open and hop to another user account. Great for training, testing and impressing friends (ok, so maybe it won’t impress your friends, but the thumb trick is getting old). To enable Fast User Switching, open the Accounts System Preference pane and click on Login Options. Then check the box for Show fast user switching menu. By default you’ll then see your user name in the menu bar. To do this from the command line: defaults write /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences MultipleSessionEnabled -bool 'YES' To then disable it from the command line: defaults write /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences MultipleSessionEnabled -bool 'NO' What’s really cool though, is…
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Last of the Screen Sharing Hacks
Once upon a time (all the way back in Mac OS X 10.5) you could add a bunch of useful icons into the toolbar of Screen Sharing.app using: defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing ‘NSToolbar Configuration ControlToolbar’ -dict-add ‘TB Item Identifiers”(Scale,Control,Share,Curtain,Capture,FullScreen,GetClipboard,Quaty)’ But alas, you can’t any more (NSToolbar still exists but I haven’t found a way to get the array to result in actual icons in the toolbar). I’ve done a few articles for other preferences so I thought I’d dig my heels in and see if there were any I missed (using gdb). Well, apparently, there’s still ShowBonjourBrowser_Debug, which was also in 10.5 but it doesn’t seem to do anything. But I…
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Programmatically Changing the Mac OS X Browser
I am starting to get a lot questions on how to change the default browser for Mac OS X. I don’t know if it’s in preparation for summer imaging or if it’s because people clicked the button to reset their default browser to Chrome and then realized that, while fast, it just isn’t Safari. Either way, the default browser is stored in the com.apple.LaunchServices.plist, inside the LSHandlers array. Now, changing this with a defaults command would involve copying all the information into said command and then dumping it back in after changing all entries of com.apple.safari to the information for the browser you actually want to use. If you do…