• Mac OS X,  Mass Deployment

    Manage Recent Places In OS X

    There are two defaults keys that can be used to manage the recent places options in the OS X Finder. Both are in the .GlobalPreferences. The first is NSNavRecentPlaces and the second is NSNavRecentPlacesLimit. The NSNavRecentPlacesLimit key limits the number of items that are stored in the list. To increase the default to, let’s say, 20, use the defaults command to set the NSNavRecentPlacesLimit key to an integer of 20: defaults write .GlobalPreferences NSNavRecentPlacesLimit -int 20 Then use defaults to read the setting: defaults read NSNavRecentPlacesLimit You’ll need to “killall Finder” in order to see this in a Finder Save dialog. You can also inject items into the RecentPlaces array, called NSNavRecentPlaces, or delete…

  • Apple Configurator,  Mass Deployment

    Restrict Access To Sites On iOS Devices Using Apple Configurator 2

    One of the more common requests we get for iOS devices is to restrict what sites on the web that a device can access. This can be done in a number of ways. One is using the content filter option in Apple Configurator 2. The second is using a Global HTTP Proxy. We’ll cover both here, using custom profiles. Both require the device be Supervised. Use the Content Filter To enable the Content Filter, open Apple Configurator and click on the New menu. From there, click on Content Filter in the sidebar. You have three ways you can use the Content Filter. These include: Built-in: Limit Adult Content: A basic profile that…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mass Deployment

    Delete nvram

    A nifty little new option that came in OS X 10.9 Mavericks and stays in Yosemite is the ability to delete all of the firmware variables you’ve created. This can get helpful if you’ve got a bunch of things that you’ve done to a system and want to remove them all. If you run nvkram followed by a -p option you’ll see all of the configured firmware variables: nvram -p If you run it with a -d you’ll delete the given variables that you define (e.g. boot-args): nvram -d boot-args But, if you run the -c you’ll wipe them all: nvram -c

  • Articles and Books,  Mac OS X Server

    Chapter 3 Of My Next Book Available

    The next chapter of my next book is again available free for TidBits readers at http://tidbits.com/article/14799: This article is a pre-release chapter in the upcoming “Take Control of OS X Server,” by Charles Edge, scheduled for public release later in 2014. Apart from “Chapter 1: Introducing OS X Server,” and “Chapter 2: Choosing Server Hardware,” these chapters are available only to TidBITS members; see “‘Take Control of OS X Server’ Streaming in TidBITS” for details. Hope you enjoy! And thanks again to Adam and Tanya for their awesome editorial!

  • iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Apple ID Bulk Importer

    Some iOS and/or OS X deployments require us to create a boatload of Apple IDs. This could be to redeem VPP codes, to do iOS backups, to configure Messages, now giving the ability for OS X Server users to password reset for themselves, etc. I have sat and manually created Apple IDs for a number of clients. I’ve created dozens at a single sitting and there are some serious annoyances and challenges with doing so manually. For example, you’re gonna’ fat finger something. If you type 10 things in for 50 accounts then it’s hard to imagine you’re not gonna’ mess something up in one of those 500 fields. It’s also…

  • iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mass Deployment

    JAMF Nation User Conference 2012

    JAMF has announced the 2012 rendition of their National User Conference. Having been to two of these, I can say that if you use any JAMF products that it is a great event to attend. It is a lot of very specific information about integrating, mass deploying, mass managing, mass document distributing and mass 3rd partying for Apple products. The National User Conference will be held October 23-25 2012, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm in beautiful Minneapolis, Minnesota (where all the cool kids live). The venue is one of the best conference spots I’ve seen in the Guthrie theater, overlooking the stone arch bridge. In previous years, there have been announcements,…

  • Mass Deployment

    Deploying and Managing Firefox Part 2: Working with Munki

    A special thanks to Nick McSpadden for his third submission to krypted.com. With all the new changes in OS X/Server I haven’t even had time to write as many in such a span!!! This is a follow up post to the Firefox Management guide. Knowing how to use the CCK to manage Firefox, the next big question is: how do we get this into Munki? It’s unfortunately not as cut and paste as we’d hope, because, with all things, Firefox tends to make us do a bit of work to get what we want from it. Importing Firefox 10.0.10 ESR (current version as of writing time) into Munki is easy. You…