Need advice setting up user accounts in OSX 10.5

[maureen99]

Hello all,

Many years ago I worked on Macs all the time. But due to employment situations I have been almost exclusively in the M$ world for the past decade. Now, I work at a small organization with a pc network. We recently got a couple of mac pros and I'm hoping someone can help me out with these questions that can make my life a bit easier:

Is it possible to add items to the dock for all users, so anyone can see them when they log in?

Is it possible to set/limit settings on things like the screen saver for all users?

Is there anything like group policies that can control desktop settings, access, etc. in a more granular way than the accounts in system preferences? For instance, I may want to keep some users from saving stuff to the desktop.

I can find my way around unix, so anything that involves that is fine as well.

The OS is 10.5.

Thanks for any help,

Maureen

 

[merl1n]

Hello all,

Many years ago I worked on Macs all the time. But due to employment situations I have been almost exclusively in the M$ world for the past decade. Now, I work at a small organization with a pc network. We recently got a couple of mac pros and I'm hoping someone can help me out with these questions that can make my life a bit easier:

Is it possible to add items to the dock for all users, so anyone can see them when they log in?

Is it possible to set/limit settings on things like the screen saver for all users?

Is there anything like group policies that can control desktop settings, access, etc. in a more granular way than the accounts in system preferences? For instance, I may want to keep some users from saving stuff to the desktop.

I can find my way around unix, so anything that involves that is fine as well.

The OS is 10.5.

Thanks for any help,

Maureen

I think what you need is the Mac OS Server edition of Leopard to run on one MP. Then you can administer the others from it. You can make a bootable install image of whatever you want for all the other MPs and remotely install them. You can enforce policies, sharing, etc., set up groups with certain privileges, users with individual privileges, and much more.

 

[maureen99]

Ah I see...thank you. That sounds good but I know we are not getting another mac any time soon so I'll have to work with what we have.


Thanks again,

Maureen

 

[merl1n]

Ah I see...thank you. That sounds good but I know we are not getting another mac any time soon so I'll have to work with what we have.


Thanks again,

Maureen

You do not need another mac. The MacOS 10 server edition for Leopard is software, not hardware. You just need to install this on one of your MPs.

 

[Sky Blue]

I think she is saying they are using the Macs that they have, and can't spare one for the server.

You can set up a user template, so the first time someone logs in they have the dock/settings set a certain way. You can't continuously manage preferences without OS X server.

 

[maureen99]

I think she is saying they are using the Macs that they have, and can't spare one for the server.

Yes that's correct, thanks for clarifying for me!

You can set up a user template, so the first time someone logs in they have the dock/settings set a certain way. You can't continuously manage preferences without OS X server.

The template sounds like it would work, so I'll look into how to set one up. I'll do the research, but I'll also appreciate any helpful tips.

Thanks again everyone!

Maureen

 

[Sky Blue]

You can find details on how to make the template here:

http://www.bombich.com/mactips/files/workshop.pdf