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How to customize Mac’s Dock

This article will walk you through the process of customizing the dock of a macOS device with Hexnode’s Dock configuration profile.

The dock is a small panel on a macOS device that houses a bunch of apps, files and folders for instant access. On the left side of the dock is a list of apps, such as Launchpad, Siri, etc, and the downloads folder, files, minimized folders, Bin, etc., are located on the right side. By default, the dock is aligned at the bottom edge of the screen.

The dock is customizable in many ways, and Hexnode helps you tweak it remotely using its macOS dock preferences. You can quickly customize the look and feel of the dock and how applications appear on it. Besides, you can also configure other features such as changing the size, position or hide the dock, animate opening applications, and so on.

Set up macOS Dock preferences

Follow the steps given below to customize your Mac’s dock remotely:

Log in to the Hexnode UEM portal.
Go to Policies > New Policy. Assign a suitable name and description (optional) for the policy. Alternatively, you can also choose to continue with an existing policy.
Select macOS > Configurations > Dock. Click Configure.

Settings	Description
Dock Orientation	Choose where the dock is to be positioned on the screen – left, bottom or right edge.
Disable Dock Orientation	Check this option to disable Position on screen setting on the device (System Preferences > Dock > Position on screen). This prevents users from moving the dock position.
Automatically hide and show the dock	When this option is checked, the dock will be hidden while you are working on the device. To view/access the dock, users will have to move the mouse cursor to the screen edge (left, right or bottom), where the dock is actually positioned.
Disable “Automatically hide and show the dock” check box	Check this option to disable the Automatically hide and show the dock check box on the device (System Preferences > Dock).
Minimize windows into application icon	Check this option to minimize an application window to the corresponding app icon in the dock. Otherwise, the window is minimized to an area in the dock.
Enable Magnification	This option allows you to magnify app icons when you hover over them. This could be useful if your dock is cluttered with a number of icons.
Set size for magnification	Set the magnification size here. Choose the size by moving this slider.
Disable magnification check box	Check this option to disable the Magnification checkbox on the device (System Preferences > Dock > Magnification).
Disable Magnification slider	Check this option to disable the Magnification slider on the device (System Preferences > Dock > Magnification slider will be disabled).
Show indicators for open applications	When this option is checked, a small black dot is shown under the icon of the opened apps.
Animate opening applications	Check this option to animate opening applications from the dock.
Disable animate opening applications check box	Check this option to disable the Animate opening applications checkbox on the device (System Preferences > Dock > Animate opening applications checkbox will be disabled).
Minimize windows using	Choose the visual effect to be used on the dock when you minimize a window. You can choose either the Genie effect or Scale effect. The system uses the Genie effect by default.
Disable “Minimize windows using:” check box	Check this option to disable the Minimize windows using setting on the device under System Preferences > Dock.
Dock Size	Set the size of the dock from here. You can move the slider to set the size.
Disable Dock Size Slider	Check this option to disable the dock Size slider on the device (System Preferences > Dock > Size slider will be disabled).