Mac OS X and Managed Preferences

crystalline

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SoSH Member
Oct 12, 2009
5,771
JP
Does anyone here have experience with Macs and managed accounts?

I have a few questions that I haven't be able to find answers to. Any recommendation for an e-book or manual would be helpful too. Google turns up nearly nothing.

- What is the precedence order of various plist files? I am seeing prefs in /Library/Managed Preferences, user directories inside that dir, plus the typical system and user locations. I change some of the preferences and they do not take effect, so I am not sure what the precedence is.
- how does complete.plist affect the other individual preference files?
- Can Remote Management be used to control a machine? Does that notify any logged-in users?
- Can FileVault be unlocked using the management system? Or does it need the user's password (and then once unlocked Remote Management can be used)
- is there a list anywhere of all the preference keys and values that Mac OS X uses? Or are you stuck with often 2004-era Google results, and trial-and-error? (So Frustrating.)

Thanks for any help. I am a moron when it comes to this stuff
 
Last edited:

EricFeczko

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SoSH Member
Apr 26, 2014
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EricFeczko

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SoSH Member
Apr 26, 2014
4,823
And yes, most of Mac OS X details tend to be poorly documented. I suspect this is intentional on apple's part. Your best bet is to check out forums like stackexchange, Macworld, etc.