Create the same Dock for all users

[nsmith]

Hello,

I'm pretty new to Casper so apologies if my question is simple and and I've missed the obvious. I've just started using Casper for the management of our iMacs on campus.
I've created the BaseOS and the application packages that I need for the iMacs.

I have imaged all the machines and confirmed the applications I need are all installed.

I would now like to create the same Dock for all users who log on which contains the applications I have installed (Adobe, Office, Chrome, etc).

Is there an easy way to do this and push to all machines?

I created the Dock I want on one machine, and using Composer captured the Dock.
However, while deploying this during the imaging process, it only appears for the Administrator user. All AD users who log in just get the standard Dock.

Any help with this would be much appreciated.

Kind Regards,
Nathan Smith

[mikeh · Accepted solution]

There are a few different ways to do this.

One is to package /Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist and distribute that as a package with the Fill User Template setting checked (so that new users get the dock setting when they log into the machine the first time) and, optionally, the Fill Existing Users setting checked (so existing users get the dock settings, although this will overwrite any existing dock). This is most useful for freshly-imaged machines.

Another way is to use a policy to distribute Dock items to computers, with the policy set to Once per user per computer. You won't have a lot of control over the order of the items, though. Items are added to the beginning or the end of the dock, possibly in alphabetical order.

If you want precise control, you might want to look at dockutil, available on GitHub. There's a bit of a learning curve, though.

[calumhunter · Accepted solution]

Use a configuration profile. Or use dockutil.

Don't modify the user template for a dock setup - thats bad ju ju.

[mikeh · Accepted solution]

There are a few different ways to do this.

One is to package /Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist and distribute that as a package with the Fill User Template setting checked (so that new users get the dock setting when they log into the machine the first time) and, optionally, the Fill Existing Users setting checked (so existing users get the dock settings, although this will overwrite any existing dock). This is most useful for freshly-imaged machines.

Another way is to use a policy to distribute Dock items to computers, with the policy set to Once per user per computer. You won't have a lot of control over the order of the items, though. Items are added to the beginning or the end of the dock, possibly in alphabetical order.

If you want precise control, you might want to look at dockutil, available on GitHub. There's a bit of a learning curve, though.

[calumhunter · Accepted solution]

Use a configuration profile. Or use dockutil.

Don't modify the user template for a dock setup - thats bad ju ju.

[greatkemo · Accepted solution]

Dockutil as part of a login script is the best way. You can have it run once per user, or ongoing should you want to enforce the dock setting everytime.

[nsmith]

Thanks all for the responses, very helpful.
I'm going to give the Dockutil a go and see how I get on.