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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.
This policy is supported on macOS 10.7 and above devices.
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 |
|---|---|
| Disable changes to Dock | If checked, users cannot modify or rearrange the items added to the dock. |
| Dock Orientation | Choose where the dock is to be positioned on the screen – left, bottom or right. |
| Lock Dock orientation in device | Check this option to disable user control over the Position on screen setting on the device (System Preferences/Settings > 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” toggle in the device | Check this option to disable user control over the Automatically hide and show the dock setting on the device (System Preferences/Settings > 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. |
| Disable “Minimize windows into application icon” toggle in the device | Check this option to disable user control over the Minimize windows into application icon setting on the device under System Preferences/Settings > Dock.
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| Show indicators for open applications | When this option is checked, it will enable Show indicators for open applications setting on the device under System Preferences/Settings > Dock. This option shows a small dot below an app’s icon in the Dock when the app is open. |
| Disable “Show indicators for open applications” toggle in the device | Check this option to disable user control over the Show indicators for open applications setting on the device under System Preferences/Settings > Dock.
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| Animate opening applications | Check this option to animate opening applications from the dock. |
| Disable “Animate opening applications” toggle in the device | Check this option to disable user control over the Animate opening applications setting on the device (System Preferences/Settings > 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” dropdown in the device | Check this option to disable user control over the Minimize windows using setting on the device under System Preferences/Settings > 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 | Use the slider to adjust the magnification size of the icons. |
| Disable magnification toggle in the device | Check this option to disable user control over the Magnification checkbox on the device (System Preferences/Settings > Dock > Magnification). |
| Disable magnification slider in the device | Check this option to disable user control over the Magnification slider on the device (System Preferences/Settings > Dock > Magnification slider will be disabled). |
| Dock Size | Set the size of the dock from here. You can move the slider to set the size. |
| Disable Dock Size Slider in the device | Check this option to disable user control over the dock Size slider on the device (System Preferences/Settings > Dock > Size slider will be disabled). |
| Double click window’s title bar to | Choose what happens when you double-click the title bar of an app window. You can choose to Minimize, Zoom, or Do Nothing. |
| Disable ‘Double-click a window’s title bar to’ toggle in the device | Check this option to disable user control over the Double-click a window’s title bar to setting on the device under System Preferences/Settings > Dock.
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| Windows Tabbing | Select your preference for how documents should open – Manual, Always, and Fullscreen.
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| Disable Windows Tabbing dropdown in the device | Check this option to disable user control over the Prefer tabs when opening documents dropdown on the device under System Preferences/Settings > Dock > Windows. |
| Show recent applications in Dock | Check this option to show recently opened apps toward one end of the Dock. |
| Disable ‘Show recent applications’ toggle in the device | Check this option to disable user control over the Show suggested and recent apps in Dock setting on the device under System Preferences/Settings > Dock. |
| Allow DockFixup override | Check this option to use the file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.dockfixup.plist when a new user or migrated user logs in. This option does not affect existing users.
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| Add special folders to Dock | Select the special folders that can be created and added to the Dock when a user logs in. You can select multiple folders and add them all. Below are the different types of folders that can be selected:
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Add new items to the Dock
Select the items that must be added to the dock.
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| +Add app | When you click on the +Add app button. Select apps from the Hexnode Inventory or choose Specify Path/URL and select the Type, Display Name, and Path/URL of the app, directory, file, and URL. Also, check the ‘Allow removal from device’ option for the users to remove the app from the dock. |
| Static only | If enabled, only the items with ‘Allow removal from device’ option unchecked would be added to the Dock. Static apps are on the Applications side of the macOS Dock which cannot be removed from that location. |
Special cases
When adding items to the dock, the following scenarios may occur,
- If an app isn’t installed, a ‘?’ will appear on the dock. Hence, make sure the app is installed. Otherwise, you must reboot the device or reapply the policy after installing the app.
- When adding web clips with ‘Allow removal from device’ unchecked to Dock Items with ‘Static only’ enabled, they won’t display in the Dock. This is because the ‘Static only’ option allows only static apps in the Dock.
Associate the Dock settings with Mac
If the policy is not saved:
- Go to Policy Targets > +Add Devices.
- Select the device with which the policy is to be associated. Click Ok.
- Save the policy.
You can also associate the policy with device groups, users, user groups or domains.
If the policy is already saved:
- Check the required policy from the Policies tab.
- Click on Manage > Associate Targets.
- Select the device and click Associate.
What happens at the device end?
System preferences/Settings for the dock change accordingly as the policy gets associated with the target device.
