Prevent saving to desktop

Question

Prevent saving to desktop

Hi there.

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this question but I can't find an answer anywhere. It may be quite simple so apologies if the answer is obvious.

We have an iMac with 10.5 installed. It has an administrator account and standard account, the latter of which is used most of the time. Because a number of people use it, the desktop tends to get cluttered with files etc. Is there a simple way to prevent files from being saved to the desktop?

I don't want to set up other accounts, just prevent anyone from saving documents to the desktop - saving them anywhere else is fine.

Thank you in advance.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Oct 2, 2008 10:09 AM

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Answer 1

dwb

Level 7

33,262 points

Oct 2, 2008 11:03 AM in response to Dianne Brookes

The desktop is actually a folder - it can't be deleted but its permissions can be. Just open the account's user folder, select the desktop folder, and Get Info (command I). Now look at the permissions for the folder (you'll have to unlock it before you can change them) and change the owner's permissions to read only. (Do this after you've set the desktop how you want it to look!) The user can still authenticate but this will at least remind him/her not to casually save to the desktop.

Since I haven't done this myself (other than to test the possibility) you might want to do it to your own computer for a day or too just to make sure no programs choke on it)

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Answer 2

Oct 3, 2008 2:50 AM in response to Dianne Brookes

Thank you to everyone for your suggestions. I'm most sincerely grateful. Changing the permissions on the desktop folder was a simple and effective way of getting the job done. The separate user accounts was also something I'd considered but as we're in a family situation, having a single account for use means it's easier to keep tabs on what the kids get up to. Thank you again. Dianne.

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Answer 3

Oct 2, 2008 10:18 AM in response to Dianne Brookes

Why don't you just enable the Guest account and have people login under that account? Files created while using a guest account are deleted when the user logs out. A temporary home folder is created for the guest’s files. When the they log out, the home folder and it’s contents are deleted.

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Answer 4

Oct 2, 2008 10:27 AM in response to Templeton Peck

Thank you for considering our problem. We do want the ability to save files and have continuity with respect to preferences etc., but keep the desktop clear. Admittedly, putting a folder on the desktop and insisting people save to that should work in theory but newbies constantly use the desktop as their personal littering ground. People also simply forget or use it for convenience. I was hoping to ensure their usage of folders in the dock or on the hard drive by simply making it impossible to save things to the desktop. I considered Deep Freeze but that rules out continuity. It seems to be much harder to do than I originally thought. Thank you again for your interest.

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Answer 5

Oct 2, 2008 12:10 PM in response to Dianne Brookes

You can't ensure continuity if multiple people share one account.

You can prevent people from writing to a folder by simply removing the write permission to it. However, if the user is the owner, then the user can change it. Therefore, you also need to change the ownership of the Desktop folder to something else.

In Terminal:
$ sudo chmod a=rx Desktop
$ sudo chown nobody Desktop

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Answer 6

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Oct 2, 2008 1:38 PM in response to J D McIninch

In addition to these draconian measures, change your paradigm, and give every user their own account, including passwords. Then, disable fast user switching and require them to log out and log in. That's the way the OS was designed, so just start using it that way and it won't matter where users save things.

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