Removing Wifi Menu Icon

[cpizanias]

Hi all,

Is there an easy way to remove the Wifi Menu icon via Casper? I found a thread from a year ago but didn't really understand what was said in it and was hoping things might have changed since. Composer doesn't seem to catch it and there's nothing in the config profiles for it. Thanks!

[easyedc]

Out of curiosity, why? JAMF provided a script to do this a while back. I haven't tested it recently but I imagine it still works.

JAMF Disable Airport

[millersc]

This is a good example of a custom profile to remove menu bar icons. I'm using something similar.

https://github.com/nmcspadden/Profiles/blob/master/MenuExtra.mobileconfig

[gmarnin]

I have an example config profile for the Wifi Menubar icon: https://github.com/gmarnin/Profiles/blob/master/Airport%20Menubar%20Disable.mobileconfig

[dferrara]

We use a package (linked in the thread below) which only turns off Wi-Fi when Ethernet is not present. I also like this approach because I can stay out of managing the menu bar.

https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/5916/package-to-turn-off-wifi-when-ethernet-is-present

[cpizanias]

@easyedc The age old reason: because my boss told me to. :) I appreciate the script however we want to just remove the icon not disable completely.

@gmarnin @millersc Sorry for being such a noob but I'm not sure I understand how I would use those.

[chad_fox]

This should help:

[https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/19305/hiding-the-wifi-icon-in-the-menu-bar](link URL)

As stated in the thread, this is the string you'll want to remove-

<string>/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/AirPort.menu</string>

[cpizanias]

So all of these links make it seem like there's no simple way. I'm just going to tell him it can't be done. Thanks anyway.

[gmarnin]

Configuration profiles are not hard. I encourage you to learn more: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH22006

[lizmowens]

So I'm going to try and revive this conversation rather than starting a new thread. We have students who want nothing more than to stay hidden so they can download games then play offline. So they get to class, log into their online classroom, start the assignment and then turn their wifi off for the remainder of the period so they can't be "spied on" via Apple Remote Desktop. It would make life much easier if I could just prevent them from doing this...or at least make it harder for them, which is why I'm considering removing the icon and restricting their access to the Networking pane in System Preferences. Does that sound doable? If I remove the icon with a configuration profile, what do I put in the required heading for the custom setting? com.apple.?

[mm2270]

@lizmowens Are the students local admins? If not, its possible to set some settings for the Wi-fi menu to only allow powering it off with administrative privileges, meaning, the menu can remain if you chose to do that, but if they attempted to turn off wi-fi, they'd be asked to "authenticate" the change.
Does that sound like something that may work in your case?

You could also combine removing the Wi-Fi menubar icon, locking down the Network preference pane and requiring admin rights to make changes to the Wi-Fi state for a pretty effective setup to stop them from going incognito.

[lizmowens]

@mm2270 that sounds like a possible option for sure. Students do not have admin privileges. How would this affect (or would it affect) their network access when they went home or travelled somewhere else, such as taking their laptops on a school out-of-town field trip?

[mm2270]

@lizmowens Well, it would depend on which options you wanted to set as being admin only options. The ones that can be set this way are, creating an ad-hoc network, changing power to Wi-Fi (meaning turning it on or off), and switching networks.
I'd imagine the "switching networks" one may not be a good one to enable as as admin only function since that would directly affect their ability to connect to another network at home or on a trip, so I wouldn't do that one. Maybe they other two though.

Rather than write up anything more on it, here's an article from about a year ago that details how to set these options using Terminal, or in a script, which is how you'd want to deploy it from Casper.

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-manage-wi-fi-with-terminal-commands-on-os-x/

In essence, your script would have something like the following in it

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport prefs RequireAdminPowerToggle=YES

The above would stop anyone without admin privs from changing the power to the Wi-Fi (from the menu or even from the Network Preference Pane)

Hope that helps.

[lizmowens]

Thanks, @mm2270 ! I'll play around with it and see what I can do. Appreciate the help.

[cpizanias]

By the way, I found how to what you're asking in this thread:

https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/13153/airport-off-in-configuration-profile

I copied and pasted from the first response into a new plist file and then uploaded that as a custom setting under configuration profiles and it worked.

[lizmowens]

@cpizanias, thanks so much!

[jalawton]

I hate that I am posting to something so old.  However, after weeks of working and looking for a solution with Sonoma showing the Wifi through the control center to all my wired lab users, I felt you might stumble across this and need specifics to a solution. 

I disable the WiFi on my machines.  I do so by running:

     sudo networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled Wi-Fi off

This will cause the WiFi icon to show an explanation point.  This is a nasty thing for users, making them think that they don't have internet when they do.  So to eliminate this, I created a Configuration Profile that I push out to these computers.

Here it is:

Then under Application & Custom Settings, I choose Upload and created the following:

The scope will be those computers running Sonoma. 

I hope you find this useful.