A simple way of locking down folders for a lab

Oct 13, '04 08:58:00AM

Contributed by: BMarsh

This hint is for smaller labs without a Mac OS X Server system (like the Xserve). It explains how to lock down the desktop (and it could be adapted for any of the user's folders).

  1. First create all needed folders for the desktop. Name them and position them where they are wanted.
  2. Logout then back in (this saves the icon positions).
  3. Go to the Users folder and do a Get Info on the Desktop folder (highlight it and hit Command-I). Change the permissions so the user only has Read Access. Potentially you could change the owner and a group the user belongs to, as this would prevent the user from easily changing the Desktop folder back to read and write.
  4. Run Terminal, then cd desktop. At this point, it's usually good to do an ls -al (or pwd) to verify you are in the right directory. If you're sure you're there, then type chmod u-w .DS_Store.
At this point, the user shouldn't be able to rename the folders on the Desktop. They will be able to move them around the Desktop, but if they drag one onto another folder, or some other place on the hard drive, it will default to copying the folder instead of moving it. Even if folders are moved around on the Desktop, once the user logs out then back in, the folders will be back in their set positions (from step 1).

A lab I've been working with has one admin account and one student account. Several different classes use the same machine, so we set up folders on the Desktop -- one for the morning and afternoon class for each day of the week, plus for the web browsers, a Downloads folder on the desktop. With the normal OS X settings, any of the students can rename and move the folders around the desktop, or even into other places on the computer.

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Mac OS X Hints
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