Siri/Mail/Calendars/Reminders auto-start at logon

[Jason]

We have restrictions policies for several built-in apps that we don't use like Mail/Calendars/Siri/etc.

On macOS 10.12.2 using NetBoot to bare-metal image test machines we're seeing that when a user logs in for the very first time they're getting Restrictions prompts for these apps. We're not doing anything to start them, so i'm assuming Sierra tries to start them automatically for one reason or another.

Ultimately, it'd be good to have the system stop trying to run these apps. Does anyone know how to do that without deleting them? We generally don't delete built-in apps just to be safe, but don't want standard users using them, and don't want the system to keep trying to run them.

[roiegat]

You could put them in restricted software and force them to close. Plus you couldn't delete them unless you disabled SIP on the machine.

[Jason]

@roiegat I have them set to kill the process currently, but it looks like there is a LaunchAgent starting them up. At least for Siri i'm now seeing that under /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.Siri.plist. There is a "<key>Disabled</key>" set to false in there, but that probably can't be changed without turning off SIP first, something that can't be done easily for an enterprise. I did read Rich's blog post about Disabling Siri, but that didn't seem to work. I've imported his two Configuration Profiles but am still getting the Restricted prompt popup every 15 seconds and Siri is still running as a task. I've tried making them apply at the Computer or User level and rebooting but without any success.

Source: https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2016/09/20/blocking-siri-on-macos-sierra/