Customize dock: app order, size, and positionSolved

Participant
Discussion
4 weeks ago

Hello everyone,

We’d like to deploy our M2 Macs with a pre-configured set of applications in the dock, but we don’t want to restrict users from moving or resizing the dock. Is there a way to set specific apps in the dock without fully locking it down for the end user?

Replies (3)

Marked SolutionPending Review
Participant
3 weeks ago
Marked SolutionPending Review

Hey @clauss! You can actually use Hexnode’s Dock configuration policy to configure the dock as you want.  

Marked SolutionPending Review
Participant
3 weeks ago
Marked SolutionPending Review

Yeah, I tried that, but I couldn’t get it to add the apps I wanted to the dock or position them how I wanted. I also tried some scripts, but the results weren’t what I was expecting.

Marked SolutionPending Review
Hexnode Expert
3 weeks ago
Marked SolutionPending Review

Hi @clauss! We’re here to help you with the issues you’ve encountered. You can customize your dock using Terminal commands, and these commands can be executed remotely on your devices through Hexnode’s Live Terminal feature.

  1. First, check if Homebrew is installed by running:
  2. If it returns a version number, you’re good! If not, you can install it with:
  3. Once you’ve installed it, you might need to add Homebrew to your path manually. You can do that by running:
  4. Then, check Homebrew again with the following command. It will return the installed Homebrew version:
  5. Next, you’ll need to install dockutil:
  6. To confirm the installation, run the following command:
  7. Once you’ve got Homebrew and dockutil installed, run this script to set up your dock. If you’ve got a lot of devices, you can push the script through Hexnode’s Execute Custom Script action. For just one or a few devices, you can run it directly in the Live Terminal.
  8. Just adjust the app paths and order in the script to suit your needs. This will set up the dock, and users will still be able to move or rearrange the apps afterward.

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Cheers
Ben Clarke
Hexnode UEM