Managed Preferences and Policies

[SFRANCIS004]

We have a desktop running Snow Leopard and a vinyl cutter connected via USB. The instructor asked IT to put icons for the vinyl cutter application on the dock, which is controlled by JSS' Managed Preferences.

Can we create a policy to add those specifics apps to a computer that's in managed preferences profile?

[pat_best]

Using managed prefs to set a dock can be done by setting the dock on a test computer and uploading the plist to the JSS into managed preferences, but there are a few better ways of doing this. You can use dock item placement via policy in the JSS or more pointedly since we are discussing one computer, I would use casper remote to add the dock item. In order to get the dock item into the JSS you will want to install the app and place the dock icon on a test computer and launch casper admin on that test computer to add the dock item. Another way would be to use dockutil to place the dock item. You could do this by placing dockutil in a dmg or pkg to be installed somewhere on the local computer and calling up a command via casper remote (or policy if you prefer) to place the dock item. Let me know if I need to clarify anything.