Apple Remote Desktop + Office problems

[Kineas]

Having a problem with ARD for teachers. If I log into a Mac with the administrator account, I can open ARD, view all computers, and observe/control them no problem. If a teacher logs in (with a non-admin account), every time they try to observe or connect to a machine, they are asked to enter the username and password of an account to connect with, with the administrator account being the only account that will allow them access. Is there anyway to give them privileges to allow them to connect to students machines without having to enter the admin username and password and without changing their account to an administrator one?

 

Also, when observing a large amount of machines at once, if there are several pages of machines because they don't all fit on one screen, it keeps auto scrolling through the pages. Is there anyway to stop this? So many times I've gone to click on a machine and it switches to the next page of machines by itself. I know I can zoom out to show all screens on one page, but if you zoom to far out it doesn't show information about each machine i.e. the current logged on user.

 

And finally, I have installed Office 2011 for Mac on all of our machines. However, the first time a specific user goes onto a machine and they open Word/Powerpoint/Excel etc, they are prompted with a window where they have to enter a name, organisation etc, and then select whether they want automatic upgrades and to opt in for the user experience survey. That's fine, but if the user uses a different machine next time, they have to go through all of that again. Is there anyway to prevent this as the first 10 minutes of every ICT lesson is lost because of this.

 

Thanks.

[Gerk]

ARD saves the usernames and passwords for each machine in the local account (i.e. in your case your admin account is setup to know the remote machine usernames and passwords but their accounts are likely not). It's probably asking for the username/account on the remote computer (not the local one). If their home folders stay after logout (ours do not) then ARD should "remember" the usernames and passwords when they next try to use them.

 

As for accounts to allow ARD access you can set this in the clients themselves (and even restrict access to what they are allowed to do). This is done in System Preferences->Sharing->Remote Management. You can then set which local accounts can access the machine and what type of things they are allowed to do. By default it only allows admin accounts, so this is likely what you are seeing here.

[Gerk]

And finally, I have installed Office 2011 for Mac on all of our machines. However, the first time a specific user goes onto a machine and they open Word/Powerpoint/Excel etc, they are prompted with a window where they have to enter a name, organisation etc, and then select whether they want automatic upgrades and to opt in for the user experience survey. That's fine, but if the user uses a different machine next time, they have to go through all of that again. Is there anyway to prevent this as the first 10 minutes of every ICT lesson is lost because of this.

 

Thanks.

 

If you're not using something to manage the computers (Workgroup Manager, Profiles, third party software, etc) then you'll likely have to modify the default User Template on all of the machines to already have the details for Office pre-copied into them. You should google this one as it can get pretty involved and there's a lot of good tutorials out there on how to do this. If you do have management software running all the machines then you should be able to override the preferences for Office (again a google will help here).

[Kineas]

With ARD, the method you have described is to allow local users access to the computer. In this scenario, the teachers are logging in with a network account that has been created in AD. I have set it up so that only one iMac (designated as the teacher iMac) has ARD installed and only a teacher or admin can't view it in the dock. So I want anyone able to use ARD to be able to use it to view/observe any other iMac.

 

With Office, I am using workgroup manager. Where can I set the options for it?

[samurl_]

ARD has a separate password for each user, even if it's the same copy of the app running from the same mac. Make sure the serial number and installation is done under the ladmin account. Also check in ARD (under an admin) that the preference for non-administrators has the other users of the Software present. It should prompt for an ARD password when logged in as a user, rather than a serial/pass.

 

You will need to attach the plist preference files for Office 2011 in the relevant group within workgroup manager's 'details' tab. If 2011 is replacing 2008, then you can simply replace the 2008 plist file with the 2011 ones. If you're keeping 2008 on any machines at all, then you will need to create a new group solely for the new machines having 2011 on them.

 

Just seen the top bit is mentioned almost exactly already, but I'll leave it there anyway now I've typed it all