How to replicate settings & apps on a 2nd Mac?

[Akarin]

Hi all,

I have 3 Mac computers running Lion. A Mac mini, a MacBook Pro and a MacBook. On each, I have two user accounts. One for me and one for my girlfriend.

As we often swap the machines we need, I would like my (and hers) desktop background, dock, safari settings, etc... as well as the installed apps (some from the App Store, some dowloaded off the net) to be the same (and if possible, in sync) without manually configuring/installing apps on all 3 of them. Is this doable? If yes, how would I go about?

Thanks!

 

[nippyjun]

You could use time machine on one machine to backup things the way you want them on other machines. Then restore from time machine on the other computers.

 

[Akarin]

You could use time machine on one machine to backup things the way you want them on other machines. Then restore from time machine on the other computers.

Will this also restore installed applications? Would it not overwrite things like screen resolution (the 3 machines are different) and other system parameters?

 

[nippyjun]

It restores apps, settings, data, etc.

I'm not sure about resolution. I would think that if the machines are different resolutions it wouldn't force a resolution that isn't supported. You could always set resolution after the restore.

Some apps like microsoft office 2011 asks for the registration key after a restore. At least on mine it did.