Profile Manager: Set default browser on managed Macs

If you are using the Guest account, you are generating a home folder on each login and destroying it on each logout. Why not just customize the user template to contain the values you want to push? Otherwise, you are generating custom profiles that may be tricky to construct.

The setting for default browser is stored in:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure.p list

Since the syntax of this file is a bit funky, I suggest creating the file the way you want and then copy the plist to the user template. For example, create an account on a machine. Let's say the account is jeff. You can use this command once the file is created containing your default browser settings:

sudo cp -R /Users/jeff/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices /System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj/Library/Preferences/

This copies the entire com.apple.LaunchServices folder into the template's Preferences folder.

As for scroll direction, this is set in the invisible .GlobalPreferences.plist file. The key is com.apple.swipescrolldirection and you can set this value in the user template, allowing all guest instances to inherit the setting. A sample command is:

sudo defaults write /System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist com.apple.swipescrolldirection -bool FALSE

If I recall, this one value will work for both a trackpad and a magic mouse.

Hope this helps.

Reid

Apple Consultants Network

Author - "El Capitan Server – Foundation Services"

Author - "El Capitan Server – Control & Collaboration"

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I will admit, even with DEP, VPP, JAMF, and configuration profiles, I still find customization of the user template to be necessary in many deployments. Especially for guest accounts.

I have a deployment at a school that sounds similar to what you are doing. They have 140 shared Airs on carts. There is no server infrastructure and all academic tools are web based so there is no unique home folders and no local persistent data. In this case, customization of the user template was the way to go. Each login copies the template, ensuring a consistent user experience. If I need to change a setting, I simply push a command or package to each machine. The next login by a guest user gets the changes.

Glad to assist.