Sierra 10.12 - Safari Home Page - User Templet

[gohlinger]

Safari defaults to: http://www.apple.com/startpage and I unable to change the default home page by modifying com.apple.safari.plist like in the other versions of OS X.  I need the user templet homepage set to our home page - not Apples.  Any idea how to modify this setting?

[mbezzo]

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

[SGill]

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.

[dkwon]

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/"

[donmontalvo]

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.

[scheb]

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

[allanp81]

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

[tep]

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....