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Command to set Desktop icons

  • January 5, 2023
  • 6 replies
  • 34 views
Veronica_G
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Hello, I am trying to set desktop icons as visible with a script. I assume I can do a "defaults write ..." to some plist file to set these options, but after setting them myself while running Composer to try to see which file was edited, I was lost in plist confusion.

To be clear, the settings are shown in the GUI under Finder settings (In Finder, type command comma and click the General tab) as:

Hard Disks
External Disks
CDs, DVDs, and iPods
Connected Servers

 

I would like to set those four as visible (checked) via command.

 

Thanks for any help anyone can provide

Best answer by YanW

Maybe give this a try

#!/bin/bash currentuser=`stat -f "%Su" /dev/console` su "$currentuser" -c "defaults write com.apple.finder ShowExternalHardDrivesOnDesktop -bool true;" su "$currentuser" -c "defaults write com.apple.finder ShowHardDrivesOnDesktop -bool true;" su "$currentuser" -c "defaults write com.apple.finder ShowMountedServersOnDesktop -bool true;" su "$currentuser" -c "defaults write com.apple.finder ShowRemovableMediaOnDesktop -bool true;" #Restarts cfprefsd and Finder killAll cfprefsd killAll Finder exit

    6 replies

    M
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    • macinblack
    • Contributor
    • January 5, 2023

    Allow me to make a recommendation. The native tools that macOS and Jamf have for dock management are clunky and frustrating to use. The dockutil project simplifies things: https://github.com/kcrawford/dockutil.

    Veronica_G
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    • Veronica_G
    • Author
    • New Contributor
    • January 5, 2023

    Allow me to make a recommendation. The native tools that macOS and Jamf have for dock management are clunky and frustrating to use. The dockutil project simplifies things: https://github.com/kcrawford/dockutil.


    Thanks for the suggestion but I'm not concerned with the Dock, only Finder Desktop icons.

    YanW
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    • YanW
    • Contributor
    • Answer
    • January 5, 2023

    Maybe give this a try

    #!/bin/bash currentuser=`stat -f "%Su" /dev/console` su "$currentuser" -c "defaults write com.apple.finder ShowExternalHardDrivesOnDesktop -bool true;" su "$currentuser" -c "defaults write com.apple.finder ShowHardDrivesOnDesktop -bool true;" su "$currentuser" -c "defaults write com.apple.finder ShowMountedServersOnDesktop -bool true;" su "$currentuser" -c "defaults write com.apple.finder ShowRemovableMediaOnDesktop -bool true;" #Restarts cfprefsd and Finder killAll cfprefsd killAll Finder exit
    mvu
    M
    Veronica_G
    M
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    • macinblack
    • Contributor
    • January 5, 2023

    Thanks for the suggestion but I'm not concerned with the Dock, only Finder Desktop icons.


    So sorry. I have no idea how I misread this so badly. Anyhow, for your issue, I think what you're looking for is:

    Off
    defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop false; killall Finder

    On
    defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop true; killall Finder

    Use this to see all attributes:

    defaults read com.apple.finder

    And this to see the current CreateDesktop setting:

    defaults read com.apple.finder CreateDesktop

    I hope this is more helpful!

    mvu
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    • mvu
    • Jamf Heroes
    • January 6, 2023

    Could also do a Configuration Profile. This way, users can't uncheck the 4 boxes.

     

    YanW
    ScottMcGorie
    ScottMcGorie
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    • ScottMcGorie
    • New Contributor
    • January 10, 2023

    @mvu i was going to suggest this nice one 😁

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