Managing onetime Safari settings in Big Sur

[jclark27]

Greetings all!

I'm wondering something. We currently want to have homepages set once during setup. I was imagining using something such as

/usr/bin/defaults write /Users/$currentUser/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari HomePage -string "https://apple.com"

However, it seems this is denied in Big sur, correct? Is there a way i can accomplish this without a config profile? We want to allow users to change but initially use this homepage.

[sdagley]

@jclark27 It's not the simplest process in the world, but the approach I adopted for deploying Configuration Profiles with settings I want to allow users to change:

1) Create a Self Service policy the user can run which executes a script to create a hidden file used as a flag the user is requesting the profile be removed. The policy also runs a recon.
2) Create an Extension Attribute which looks to see if the flag file from Step 1 exists
3) Create a Smart Group whose membership is any computer where the EA from Step 2 reports the flag file exists
4) Use the Smart Group from Step 3 as an Exclusion for the Scope of the Configuration Profile I want the user to be able to remove

[jclark27]

Thanks so much for the input!

Wow ok so I’m guessing I’m not too crazy for thinking this seemed harder than it used to be haha.

Cheers