10.4: Disable the installation of Dashboard Widgets
May 12, '06 07:31:00AM
Contributed by: critcol
My company is preparing to install Tiger on all of our Macs, and I was told by an IT guy in the know that there's an intent to completely disable the Dashboard. Having used the Dashboard since Tiger's release and loving it, I can understand that, for security reasons and not wanting users to be able to install any system-damaging widgets they come across, disabling the Dashboard completely is not unwarranted.
But I believe the Dashboard is an inherently useful tool, and if there could be a way to prevent users from installing their own widgets, the Dashboard should be allowed to remain active. That being the case, I figured out that you take these two steps to secure the Dashboard, and prevent unauthorized widget installs:
- Use Admin/Root privileges to lock the top-level /Library -> Widgets folder, to prevent system-level widget installs. Use the Admin/Root privileges to lock the user's Library -> Widgets folder to prevent User installs (this will also block drag and drop installs).
- Widgets are installed by a small program called the Widget Installer. It resides deep inside of the OS X System folder. Modify the permissions of this app so that the end user has no access, and this will prevent any installation of a Widget, while allowing full use of the Dashboard. The program is located here: /System -> Library -> CoreServices -> Dock (control-click and Show Package Contents) -> Contents -> Resources -> Widget Installer.app.
(You can also prevent users from deleting or disabling widgets with the built-in Widget Manager (called Widgets) by locking it. It resides in the same folder as the Widget Installer.)
Doing both of these things will disable the system's ability to install new widgets, but keep the Dashboard's ability to run existing widgets.
[robg adds: For this to work, the normal users must not have admin privileges, obviously, or they could just override the permissions settings.]
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