Sierra 10.12 - Safari Home Page - User Templet

I still just create a package I apply at imaging time that writes a custom bookmarks.plist file to the User Templates directory. I know people frown on this because Apple could break this at anytime - but it's been working for years and still works with Sierra. :)

Likewise you could just have a package that drops your customized bookmarks.plist directly in the user's directory I suppose.

Thanks,
Matt

Having trouble finding where Apple moved the Sierra Safari homepage setting to, as well. Used to be in com.apple.safari.plist for sure and appears gone now.

If you want to change it from User Template, try this. I have been using this on macOS Sierra and worked perfectly.

sudo defaults write /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari HomePage -string "http://www.yoursite.com/"

If you want to change it for logged on user,
sudo defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari HomePage -string "http://www.yoursite.com/"

We recently came up on this issue, having used a Configuration Profile to set Safari Homepage, it worked fine, however as expected this forces the Homepage so users can not change it.

Given the deprecation of MCX, where once/often/force management frequency was in our control, and how Configuration Profiles lack that control, we need a solution.

So we opened an AppleCare Enterprise ticket to put this on their plate, so they can respond and provide a manageable/supported solution.

@donmontalvo - how'd that ticket come out? Did you get an answer?

I got this working only by applying it as a custom setting via a config profile. It will not work via user template etc.

I got a last minute/do-it-now mandate from our Marketing department to set the homepage for all new Macs. So, I set the home page with a configuration profile, and scoped it to a smart group for macs enrolled within the last 7 days. That satisfies Marketing's ask to have a default homepage, but allows users to change it (albeit they have to wait for the 7 days). It's not the most elegant way to solve the problem, but it was a quick and easy approach.

Re-enrollment is a bit of a sticky wicket, but I'll deal with that another day....