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Disable Spaces/Mission Control for Network Users

  • January 21, 2014
  • 14 replies
  • 73 views
J
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Our school district is piloting the Smarter Balance assessment this spring. One requirement of the testing is that Mission Control/Spaces is disabled. Through the GUI, you do this by going to System Preferences-Keyboard-Shortcuts and unchecking the box for Mission Control. It appears unchecking this box modifies the com.apple.symbolichotkeys (amongst others) preference file. The problem I'm having is that this is a user-level preference and most tips I find online are for local users, not AD users. Anybody have a fairly painless way to do this rather than touching each machine?

Best answer by cbrewer

Setup a configuration profile with a custom payload. Preference domain should be com.apple.symbolichotkeys.

The plist contents should be:
{AppleSymbolicHotKeys={79={enabled=false, value={parameters=[65535, 123, 262144], type=standard}}, 80={enabled=false, value={parameters=[65535, 123, 393216], type=standard}}, 81={enabled=false, value={parameters=[65535, 124, 262144], type=standard}}, 118={enabled=false, value={parameters=[65535, 18, 262144], type=standard}}}}

    14 replies

    bentoms
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    • bentoms
    • Hall of Fame
    • January 21, 2014

    @johnnasset.. Will it now work via MCX?

    C
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    • cbrewer
    • Esteemed Contributor
    • Answer
    • January 21, 2014

    Setup a configuration profile with a custom payload. Preference domain should be com.apple.symbolichotkeys.

    The plist contents should be:
    {AppleSymbolicHotKeys={79={enabled=false, value={parameters=[65535, 123, 262144], type=standard}}, 80={enabled=false, value={parameters=[65535, 123, 393216], type=standard}}, 81={enabled=false, value={parameters=[65535, 124, 262144], type=standard}}, 118={enabled=false, value={parameters=[65535, 18, 262144], type=standard}}}}

    J
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    • johnnasset
    • Author
    • Contributor
    • January 21, 2014

    Excellent, thanks. I set it as a computer level profile, converted a plist from a machine to xml and uploaded to the JSS. Worked like a charm.

    C
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    • cbrewer
    • Esteemed Contributor
    • January 21, 2014

    Mine is User level FWIW.

    J
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    • johnnasset
    • Author
    • Contributor
    • January 21, 2014

    Hmm, seems to work fine at computer level too.

    C
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    • cdenesha
    • Honored Contributor
    • January 22, 2014

    awesome - was dreading tackling this.

    C
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    • chrismartin
    • New Contributor
    • February 13, 2014

    Thanks!

    C
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    • cbrewer
    • Esteemed Contributor
    • February 28, 2014

    Here's the original plist contents needed for this. You'll also need to convert it to xml prior to uploading to the jss.

    plutil -convert xml1 ~/Desktop/com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist

    <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>AppleSymbolicHotKeys</key>
    <dict>
        <key>118</key>
        <dict>
            <key>enabled</key>
            <false/>
            <key>value</key>
            <dict>
                <key>parameters</key>
                <array>
                    <integer>65535</integer>
                    <integer>18</integer>
                    <integer>262144</integer>
                </array>
                <key>type</key>
                <string>standard</string>
            </dict>
        </dict>
        <key>79</key>
        <dict>
            <key>enabled</key>
            <false/>
            <key>value</key>
            <dict>
                <key>parameters</key>
                <array>
                    <integer>65535</integer>
                    <integer>123</integer>
                    <integer>262144</integer>
                </array>
                <key>type</key>
                <string>standard</string>
            </dict>
        </dict>
        <key>80</key>
        <dict>
            <key>enabled</key>
            <false/>
            <key>value</key>
            <dict>
                <key>parameters</key>
                <array>
                    <integer>65535</integer>
                    <integer>123</integer>
                    <integer>393216</integer>
                </array>
                <key>type</key>
                <string>standard</string>
            </dict>
        </dict>
        <key>81</key>
        <dict>
            <key>enabled</key>
            <false/>
            <key>value</key>
            <dict>
                <key>parameters</key>
                <array>
                    <integer>65535</integer>
                    <integer>124</integer>
                    <integer>262144</integer>
                </array>
                <key>type</key>
                <string>standard</string>
            </dict>
        </dict>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>
    K
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    • kateswist
    • Contributor
    • March 5, 2014

    Can you explain the last step? I was with you until I got to the upload file part of configuration profile. This is the first time I have created one so assume I know nothing...

    Thanks in advance,
    Katie

    C
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    • cbrewer
    • Esteemed Contributor
    • March 5, 2014

    This is not a configuration profile. This is the plist needed for the preference domain after you create a configuration profile in the JSS. Create a new configuration profile and configure custom settings. There you can upload the com.apple.symbolichotkeys plist file.

    F
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    • fordsam
    • New Contributor
    • January 27, 2016

    Setup a configuration profile with a custom payload
    Uploaded XML converted Plist
    scoped to appropriate devices
    Device received the configuration profile successfully

    opened up CaSecureBrowser and it still states the need to disable spaces.

    Anyone suggestions?

    M
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    • millersc
    • New Contributor
    • April 19, 2016

    Anyone have any luck with this and key dict 52, which happens to be "Turn Dock Hiding On/Off" in the Keyboard Pref pane.

    Tired defaults write, profile at computer and user levels. Nothing sets it. 10.10.3 workstations.

    Thanks
    Steve

    M
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    Thank you very much for this.

    C
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    • Carl_Sjoberg
    • New Contributor
    • June 26, 2019

    This should be included https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/13713/sbac-secure-browser-7-0-and-disabling-spaces

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