Standardizing Macintosh / OS

J

jeno

Registered
Hello All,

Sorry to bring this up again. I know this has been discussed before.
I am having trouble standardizing a dozens of Mac workstation in a new environment. We do not have Xserve installed and we can't use ARD. Those workstations are not even on a network! I can't set administration restriction because user need to access systems folder to clean caches or load font. Using WGM on a local machine will be a real pain and took ages to set it one by one.

Is there any way I can "reset" the machine to the initial setup upon restart. Basically, users are not computer savvy. They may do all sort of crazy things and ask to fix it every time. Even thought you ask them not to do it, they will still did it. It is driving me insane!

I need a tool to put those things back in place and delete those in the wrong place. Basically what it need to do is cleaning up font folder, all sort of caches, preferences, printer setup, launch service, repair permission...etc.

Obviously, i also need to disable CD/DVD and USB as well as apply updates. But i guess that is not going to happen in my situation.


Cheers,
Jeno
 
I've try that. User still need certain lever of access to systems to load font and cleaning caches.
 
jeno said:
I've try that. User still need certain lever of access to systems to load font and cleaning caches.
Click to expand...
Actually, no. Users do not need to clean caches. Also, fonts are probably the most problem-plagued software on a well-maintained system.

No more than 0.01% of users need to install fonts. The other 99.99% of users will be perfectly well-served with the fonts preinstalled by Apple and those that are installed with Office 2008, iWork 08, and other third-party software packages.

These are my challenges:
  • Few users ask for their own accounts even though they are entitled to them.
  • Despite the fact that my computers have an excellent selection of software, they try to install packages. More often than not, the package they try to install is one that I have already installed.
If you are the administrator, then you need to be the administrator. Here is what I do:
  • Give the most trusted users administrative access.
  • Give standard accounts to all others who ask for them.
  • Make guest accounts guest accounts available to all users with legitmate access.
  • Reduce by one level the privileges of those users who abuse their privileges.
 
Hello MisterMe,

I am working in an environment where we do used a lot fonts. , loading and cleaning caches is must. I have been struggling it for a long time. I would have set administrator privileges for user account if it wasn't for this reason.


Cheers,
Jeno
 
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