Remove about this mac, and others!

[mbrunt]

Second post of the day, go me!

 

Is there any way of removing the about this mac, app store, software update etc links from the apple menu? For just students, maybe via WGM?

 

Thanks

[dayzd]

You have to edit some files with Finder.app and various frameworks.

 

I can tell you how I did it, but you'll have to hold on 'til I've got a few minutes to dig up my documentation.

[dayzd]

Right, having spotted a similar post somewhere else, I've finally got round to looking up some details!

 

So, what you're asking you cannot do with MCX settings. It has to be done by manually editing resources within the Carbon framework that OS X uses.

 

This SuperUser question (How can I edit the user interfaces of Mac OS X programs?) gives a good overview of the process. The given answer focuses on standalone apps, but the process is the same for OS X, you just have to look in different places to find what you want.

 

Once you've got the .nib open, you can select the menu items you want and just hit 'Delete' to get rid of them.

 

When you've edited the .nibs you want to, replace them in the framework you copied them from (you did copy them to the desktop to edit, right?) and restart the Finder to see your changes.

sudo KillAll Finder

Finder will relaunch automatically and will hopefully show your changes, although as you're editing the Carbon.framework itself, you may need to restart the whole machine.

 

Importantly, be prepared to break something. Editing Finder.app and system frameworks badly will mean the system may not start making it difficult to use the machine, so it's worth having SSH set up, or being ready to rebuild the machine from scratch if something goes wrong! Starting in Single User Mode may help you replace a backup copy of your edits to get the machine back on it's feet without a re-installation.

 

(More notes on Single user mode can be found here: Macintosh Security Site -> Mac OS X Single User Mode Root Access - CodeSamurai )

 

 

Things to note:

1. You need to install the XCode ('Additional Installers' from your OS X installation media) on the machine you're using to make the changes (you don't need it on the clients you want to change, though). If you're on Lion, I'm pretty sure the XCode tools are free from the App Store.
   
2. You need to know where the menu item is that you want to remove. I'll include a note at the bottom of this post with the ones I've learnt. If you're looking for something else, you'll have to do some trial and error testing and, particularly when trying to change OS X itself, be prepared to find you can't change what you want to.
   
3. Be careful with file permissions on the .nib files you edit
   
4. Always, ALWAYS keep a backup of unedited versions of your .nib files/applications!
   

 

 

Locations of stuff to edit:

• Finder menus (Network, iDisk, Go to Folder, Connect To Server etc) =

  /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/MenuBar.nib

  
  

• Apple menu (About this Mac, Software Update, System Profiler etc =

  /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/VERSIONS/A/FRAMEWORKS/HIToolbox.framework/Versions/A/Resources/English.lproj/StandardMenus.nib

  This is the one you want to look at to remove entries from the Apple menu
   
  

• Dock menus (Show in Finder, Open in Finder etc) =

  /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/DockMenus.plist

  (This is a Preference List text file, which is much easier to edit than a .nib!)
  

 

 

Additional links:

• 10.5: Edit compiled NIBs with Interface Builder - Mac OS X Hints
  
• How To: Edit .nib Files in Snow Leopard
  

 

 

(This post is very similar to another one I've posted in, so if you need more, there may be something useful there!)