Remove "Go" Menu

[HallX]

I know this has been asked before, but I can find no satisfactory answer for it. I want to remove or edit the "Go" option from the Finder menu for our student accounts on Snow Leopard OD\AD setup. Is it possible?

 

Cheers

Paul

[jubbi]

I'm not at a mac school at the moment, but I think it's removed when you select the "use simple finder" option of finder preferences in WGM.

[dayzd]

Yes, but you cannot do it with MCX settings. You have to manually edit resources within the Finder.app, and it's not always possible to do exactly what you want to do.

 

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. I've never tried removing an entire menu before, though.

 

When you've edited the .nibs you want to, replace them in the Finder.app (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.

 

Importantly, be prepared to break something. Editing Finder.app badly will mean Finder will 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!

 

 

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 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

  
  

• 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!)

Edited December 1, 2011 by dayzd
Added link to other post

[dayzd]

I'm not at a mac school at the moment, but I think it's removed when you select the "use simple finder" option of finder preferences in WGM.

 

Pretty sure Simple Finder will do that, yes, but it's also horrible. The main reason I don't use Simple Finder is the fact that every folder you open starts another window, so you very quickly get a desktop full of windows!

If I remember correctly, you also get no menu buttons in the windows, and can't (easily) change how the icons are displayed.

 

I may be wrong, as I've not used Simple Finder in years. It also may do just what you're looking for, so give it a go and check it out!

[HallX]

@jubbi

Simple finder will do it however, as @dayzd states, its horrible.

 

@dayzd

Thanks for the help, I'll enjoy the bedtime reading

 

Paul

[JNStiles]

Is it possible to remove the entire "Go" menu as a whole, or can you only remove lower items such as Network, Utilities etc?

[dayzd]

I'm pretty sure if you remove the entire 'Go' menu, Finder won't run. I don't remember having any success going that route when I was testing, certainly.