Setting Safari behavior

We use MCX.

http://macmule.com/2013/10/27/how-to-set-safari-7-to-open-at-the-homepage/

You could also use the script examples & run @ login as a launch agent.

Second bentoms on using MCX or mcxtoprofile if you want to go that route:

Have a look at the Safari 7 preference manifest. Located at /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Resources/com.apple.Safari.manifest/Contents/Resources/com.apple.Safari.manifest

Note that I did purposely type the Contents/Resources/com.apple.Safari.manifest part twice. Anyway, looking at that text file you can see what all keys and values are valid

Do I need to do anything special to use MCX if I only want to manage the Safari settings for right now? We use Active Directory and if I could just use MCX to fill in where JAMF can't help with the settings without having to make any changes to AD or the DCs that would be best.

I just looked in Workgroup Manager at the Safari settings. Whenever I have Preferences, Details selected, the Safari preferences are listed no matter which computers I select. Once I set the settings I want, is there a way to select which computers those settings are applied to? I am unable to create new computer lists in the Directory Utility or Workgroup Manager. I want to make sure I don't set something in here and accidentally push it to every computer on our domain.

So I wanted to take this a step further and have a script write the default settings for Safari 7 for all users or just filling the user template to populate this setting to each user.

So far I can use the ```
defaults write com.apple.Safari NewWindowBehavior -int 0
``` populate the correct setting on the current user but it doesn't seem to fill all existing users or the user template.

Gabe Shackney
Princeton Public Schools

@gshackney][/url,

You could use an approach similar to the one I use to disable the iCloud pop-up. I have that script available here on my GitHub repo:

https://github.com/rtrouton/rtrouton_scripts/blob/master/rtrouton_scripts/disable_icloud_pop_up/disable_icloud_pop_up.sh

I'll see if I can get this to work. I think I used this script before, however I had problems with Mavericks still asking for iCloud info, but worked with 10.7 and 10.8.

Thanks!
Gabe Shackney
Princeton Public Schools

I have too have tried to get this to work so that when users change the homepage it changes it back, heres my script its not working atm:
#!/bin/sh
# The script checks the system default user template
# for the presence of the Library/Preferences directory.
#
# If the directory is not found, it is created and then the
# Safari settings are set.

for USER_TEMPLATE in "/System/Library/User Template"/*
do
defaults write "${USER_TEMPLATE}"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari HomePage "http://www.bing.com" defaults write "${USER_TEMPLATE}"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari NewWindowBehavior -integer 0
defaults write "${USER_TEMPLATE}"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari AlwaysRestoreSessionAtLaunch -bool false
done

# The script checks the existing user folders in /Users
# for the presence of the Library/Preferences directory.
#
# If the directory is not found, it is created and then the
# Safari settings are set.

for USER_HOME in /Users/*
do
USER_UID=basename "${USER_HOME}"
if [ ! "${USER_UID}" = "Shared" ]
then
if [ ! -d "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences ]
then
mkdir -p "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences
chown "${USER_UID}" "${USER_HOME}"/Library
chown "${USER_UID}" "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences
fi
if [ -d "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences ]
then
defaults write "${USER_TEMPLATE}"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari HomePage "http://www.bing.com" defaults write "${USER_TEMPLATE}"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari NewWindowBehavior -integer 0
defaults write "${USER_TEMPLATE}"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari AlwaysRestoreSessionAtLaunch -bool false
chown "${USER_UID}" "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist
fi
fi
done
fi exit 0
Any suggestions?

@blackholemac Thanks for the hint. I was able to use the manifest to find a setting I needed to use to always allow cookies. Worked very well with a configuration profile.

@leegalan HI, any chance you can share the details of you config profile with me. I am attempting to always allow cookies for our students while they sit a few surveys that require this setting to be on.

Thanks :)

@pnbahry I just created a plist file called, com.apple.Safari.plist, and the only setting I had in it was BlockStoragePolicy. I set that to 1 or true. Then uploaded it to the Custom Settings part of the configuration profile.

Hope it helps.