macOS change safari homepage using a script

M

morrisman1

macrumors 6502

Original poster

Apr 6, 2008

272

0

Bottom end of the bottom half - Invercargill New Z

• Jul 22, 2009

• #1

hi all,

basically i want to prank my mate, i want to write a script which changes his homepage to a particular page, and then set this script to run on startup.

is there a way to do this? He uses safari on 10.5.7

thanks very much, this is for jokes, not malicious reasons (I will put him back to normal after a week)

 

M

miiles

macrumors regular

Aug 28, 2008

243

0

California

• Jul 22, 2009

• #2

morrisman1 said:

hi all,

basically i want to prank my mate, i want to write a script which changes his homepage to a particular page, and then set this script to run on startup.

is there a way to do this? He uses safari on 10.5.7

thanks very much, this is for jokes, not malicious reasons (I will put him back to normal after a week)

Click to expand...

Any reason why you couldn't just change his home page in the preferences?

EDIT: Actually, I have a feeling he would figure that out after a week.

 

M

morrisman1

macrumors 6502

Original poster

Apr 6, 2008

272

0

Bottom end of the bottom half - Invercargill New Z

• Jul 22, 2009

• #3

yea, the idea is so that it will change automatically on startup. Where does safari keep the .plist with the homepage url?

 

lee1210

macrumors 68040

Jan 10, 2005

3,182

3

Dallas, TX

• Jul 22, 2009

• #4

Honestly, it would be a better prank to change it to one of four sites every second or third time he started his browser. Consistent behavior is not nearly as maddening as seemingly random behavior.

-Lee

 

M

mslide

macrumors 6502a

Sep 17, 2007

707

2

• Jul 22, 2009

• #5

morrisman1 said:

Where does safari keep the .plist with the homepage url?

Click to expand...

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist

Key = HomePage

 

M

morrisman1

macrumors 6502

Original poster

Apr 6, 2008

272

0

Bottom end of the bottom half - Invercargill New Z

• Jul 23, 2009

• #6

mslide said:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist

Key = HomePage

Click to expand...

nothing in there seems to relate to the homepage. I set it to ebay, then searched for ebay in that .plist and it wasnt there

 

M

mslide

macrumors 6502a

Sep 17, 2007

707

2

• Jul 23, 2009

• #7

morrisman1 said:

nothing in there seems to relate to the homepage. I set it to ebay, then searched for ebay in that .plist and it wasnt there

Click to expand...

Odd. That's where where mine is. I was changing it to different things to verify right before I posted that before.

 

M

morrisman1

macrumors 6502

Original poster

Apr 6, 2008

272

0

Bottom end of the bottom half - Invercargill New Z

• Jul 23, 2009

• #8

screenshot of your .plist an option? might help a bit.

I opened com.apple.safari.plist out of /macintosh hd/users/my account/library/preferences

thats the right directory isnt it?

 

M

mslide

macrumors 6502a

Sep 17, 2007

707

2

• Jul 23, 2009

• #9

morrisman1 said:

screenshot of your .plist an option? might help a bit.

Click to expand...

Here you go...

 

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M

morrisman1

macrumors 6502

Original poster

Apr 6, 2008

272

0

Bottom end of the bottom half - Invercargill New Z

• Jul 24, 2009

• #10

what program do you open the .plist with? im just using txt edit

 

M

mslide

macrumors 6502a

Sep 17, 2007

707

2

• Jul 24, 2009

• #11

morrisman1 said:

what program do you open the .plist with? im just using txt edit

Click to expand...

'Property List Editor'. It's the default editor for me. If not, it's in /Developer/Applications/Utilities/. Note, I'm not sure if you need to have XCode installed of if that utility comes standard with macs.