ARD for casual users?

Hi,
I'm a new Mac user and have been evangelizing to my friends and family since becoming one. I now have 3 people converted and there have been occasions where it would have been nice to provide remote assistance to them, similar to the way you can do with Windows. The only thing that I can find to enable this is ARD, but it appears to be targeted toward IT professionals, not casual users who want to just help out their friends and family members. Does anyone know if there is any plan to offer a non-professional license or if there is a tool out there that I can use in this fashion without spending an arm or a leg?
Thanks in advance!

I have recently been troubleshooting using ARD over the internet. I got it to work, but it required setting up port forwarding on the router of the end that was being controlled.
Not a great scenario for you as you'd have to physically do this for those you were wanting to help.
I came across an article you should check out called "Make remote tech support as simple as possible"
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070302234400232&query=vnc%2Bsimpl e%2Bset%2Bup
With this set up you are making your friends computer reach out to you and thus you only need to set up a port forward on your end.
I've used it successfully and find it a very practical trick.
Luke

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What is the best solution for me to run Microsoft Access on my brand new iMAC? Assume I'm a casual user.

What is the best solution for me to run Microsoft Access on my brand new iMAC? Assume I'm a casual user.
I am lead to believe by some real smart guys on the Apple site that If I have the Apple Store partition my iMAC and add the full suite of Office products on that partition, I can run the few Access programs I have and need to run.
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ARD Always Opens for All users

Yesterday ARD started to auto open for any user that logs in and I can't figure out why
I've checked login items in system prefs, nothing there
I've checked the program's preferences, no option seems relevant there
I've checked (i think all of them) the program's .plists, nada
I've checked launch items and launch daemons in Library and System/Library, but can't find anything there
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Hi Coomber,
What is your current situation?
Is this issue resolved?
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Fangzhou CHEN
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Remote Desktop repeatedly installs ARD Client for standard users...

ARD 3.2 running on OS 10.5.4 on MacBook Core2Duos...
These are machines imaged from an asr disk image...
No issues with admin users...
Every time Remote Desktop is launched by a standard user, a admin user name / password is required and the Apple Remote Desktop Clint is reinstalled. After, ARD runs normally until it is quit and relaunched, even without a user logout...
Making the standard user an admin user resolves the issue. The issue returns when the admin right are removed from the user...
Have run permission repairs, removed and reinstalled Remote Desktop, manually checked permissions, etc...
It appears that from the standard user perspective, the ARD Client software needs to be updated. ...
Any ideas out there? I have to deploy these machines NOW and I am running out of ideas on this...
Thank you! Les

Dave,
Thank you for the ideas. While you are pretty much correct in what you have said, these are unfortunately not my issue(s). I wish they were!
1) ARD will run fine for a standard user (at least it did in Tiger) as long as it is properly setup and licensed by an admin user ahead of time (especially the entry of the license code). This I have done, and the license code is recognized just fine. I too thought of the promote / demote idea and have tried it. While promoted, it launches fine for the user, but upon demotion goes back to reinstalling the ARD Agent at each launch of the program (this install process does not run while the user is promoted)...
2) The systems are from the same disk image. However, I have given system its own unique, valid, legally purchased serial number. Though the program is loaded on the image, it has been installed only. It is not run or licensed on the master, only on the end-user client machines...
It appears to me that from the standard user perspective, the system thinks that the ARD Agent needs to be updated. I have verified with the PackageMaker SnapShot utility that the ARD Agent and its related files are being installed when this happens, and they appear to be the only thing being installed. The Remote Desktop Admin program itself seems to be fine.
Does anybody know exactly what happens at the file system lever when Remote Desktop is launched? I am thinking my standard user is lacking access to a particular file or directory or right, and I am sure I could quickly find it if I new what to trace. Watching fs_usage has yielded lots of information, but nothing that has helped...
I have also removed and reinstalled Remote Desktop to no avail. Disabled all ACLs on the file system, placed known-good receipts and run permission repairs, and forced chmod -R 777 down the path of everything I can find with the names Remote Desktop, ARD, etc...
I am a little worried at this point that the issue is created by the imaging process something like the question marks in docks in the latter updates of 10.4. I have seen similar issues come up (launching apps under Rosetta being one) with users' LaunchServices property lists after moving their home directories from one volume to another, making the issue very hard to track down, as they reside in files that do not contain the name of the app being affected...
Any further ideas would be much appreciated!
Les

HELP needed on Remote Management set to allow access for all users

my mac mini snow leopard server runs in a data center and i use screen sharing to interact with it. i played with the sharing settings remotely yesterday and changed "allow access for" to all users. i was disconnected immediately and i couldn't logon again. i have no luck changing to other users. i don't want to make a special trip to the center to change it back to whatever it used to be. i can still use afp to connect but the screen sharing option is no longer available. what does "allow access for all users" mean anyway?
thanks!

As its name implies, allow access for all should allow any valid user account to access the server. I'm not sure why it's no longer working. It almost sounds like the ARDAgent crashed.
Either way there's a command-line interface to the ARD preferences:
/System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/ki ckstart
man kickstart discusses the options, including examples of how to enable access for specific users.

AppleScript: Waiting for a user to enter user name and password

I'm currently working on an AppleScript designed to automate binding a computer to Active Directory and another script to install a login certificate. While you can create a UNIX shell script for the Active Directory binding, I found that you have to have your user name and password in the script itself and this system will be deployed by multiple people.
So instead I'm doing an GUI Automation AppleScript of Directory Utility. What I'd like to do is have the script to wait for the admin user (who will be remoting in by ARD) to enter their Network user and password, click okay and then continue the script to quit the program and then run a self-destruct (which I'd also appreciate any advice about doing in AppleScript)
Here's the script so far, which I've set up successfully:
activate application "Directory Utility"
tell application "System Events"
click text field 1 of row 1 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of group 1 of group 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
click button 1 of group 1 of group 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
click text field 2 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
keystroke "EXAMPLE.COMPANY.com"
click UI element 3 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
click radio button "Administrative" of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
click checkbox "Allow administration by:" of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
click button 1 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
click row 1 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
keystroke "GroupExamplePS NA"
click button 1 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
click row 2 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
keystroke "GroupExampleNA"
click button 1 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
click row 3 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
keystroke "GroupExampleNATemps"
click button 1 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
click row 4 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
keystroke "GroupExampleTeam 1"
click button 1 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
click row 5 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
keystroke "GroupExampleTeam 2"
click button 1 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
click row 6 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
keystroke "GroupExampleTeam 3"
click button 1 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
click row 7 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
keystroke "GroupExampleDesktop Admins"
click button 1 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
click row 8 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility"
keystroke "GroupExampleDomain Admins"
click button "Bind…" of sheet 1 of window "Directory Utility" of application process "Directory Utility
<<WAIT LINE HERE FOR NETWORK ADMIN AND AND PASS, THEN USER WILL CLICK OKAY, THEN CONTINUE SCRIPT>>
<<QUIT ACTIVE DIRECTORY>>
<<SELF-DESTRUCT>>
end tell
It isn't a real command prompt like if you're changing System Preferences or something. It's a specialized prompt specifically for Directory Utility. However, I do need to know how to make AppleScript wait for a password for a standard Password Prompt for adding a certificate to the login keychain through Keychain Access. I've also done pretty much the same thing as above for that script.
Any tips would be GREATLY appreciated.

Yeah, I know GUI Scripting is not the best way, but I couldn't find a successful variable system for the following script. The other issue is that I'd prefer to send this by ARD and have ARD ask for a User Name and Password, but I've found there's no way to do that. Then again, I can't send the AppleScript purely remotely either.
What I mean by self-destruct is simply I only want the Active Directory binding script to run once upon login to the primary admin user and then delete itself so it doesn't get run again. The login certificate script I want to run once on each new user who logs in (so I'll likely be putting it in the "User Template") and then delete itself so it doesn't run the next time they log in. I can't figure out any way to hit those buttons through a shell script.
Here's the original UNIX shell script: (This is what I'm using temporarily until I figure out a solution that doesn't require my user name and password to be embedded)
#! /bin/bash
MACNAME=$(scutil --get ComputerName)
dsconfigad -add "CORP.DOMAIN.NET" \
-username USER \
-password PASS \
-computer $MACNAME \
-mobile disable \
-mobileconfirm disable \
-localhome enable \
-useuncpath enable \
-shell /bin/bash \
-ou OU=Macs,CN=Computers,DC=corp,DC=DOMAIN,DC=net \
-force \
-localpassword "PASSWORD" \
-groups "GROUPS"
And here is the Certificate Installation AppleScript
activate application "Keychain Access"
tell application "Finder" to open POSIX file "/FolderName/Certificate.crt"
delay (3)
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Keychain Access"
click button "Add" of window "Add Certificates"
click button "Always Trust" of group 3 of sheet 1 of window "Keychain Access"
end tell
Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it. This is a rather new field for me and most of my knowledge comes from Google Searches and about a billion tabs trying to find answers.

Best Practice Advice - Using ARD for Inventorying System Resources Info

Hello All,
I hope this is the place I can post a question like this. If not please direct me if there is another location for a topic of this nature.
We are in the process of utilizing ARD reporting for all the Macs in our district (3500 +/- a few here and there). I am looking for advice and would like some best practices ideas for a project like this. ANY and ALL advice is welcome. Scheduling reports, utilizing a task server as opposed to the Admin workstation, etc. I figured I could always learn from those with experience rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. Thanks for your time.

hey, i am also intrested in any tips. we are gearing up to use ARD for all of our macs current and future.
i am having a hard time with entering the user/pass for each machine, is there and eaiser way to do so? we dont have nearly as many macs running as you do but its still a pain to do each one over and over. any hints? or am i doing it wrong?
thanks
-wilt

Unix command to stop Software updates for all users except admins?

I want to stop App Store and other software updates for all user accounts. Administrator accounts should still be able to do Software Updates.
Is there a terminal command that can do that i can push out through ARD?
Thanks

Managed preferences are the best bet. You could use Profile Manager or use the mcx command from the command line. I'd strongly suggest browsing over this before delving into MCX though...
http://macadmins.psu.edu/2011presentations/PSUMAC301-MCX-John_DeTroye.pdf
(the Workgroup Manager application shown is deprecated, but it's essentially the same with Profiles and running MCX from the command line)

I think we casual users misunderstand ....

After 5 years of using Nero, I decided I had had enough with bloatware and switched to Premier Elements. After a *very* frustrating start, I think I have the basics down, and I know why so many casual users are so frustrated with the program. I won't apologize for buying a DVD camera ... I could afford it, I can easily import it and play it, even if I don't run it through an editor. Premiere Elements is a consumer program and we expect it to work with consumer equipment.
First, we amateurs (read the greek root "doing it for the love of it") expect a program that lets us know in no uncertain terms that it is WORKING. When I import .vob files from my Canon DC410 DVD , Premiere Elements either just sits there, or has a tiny little bar at the corner of the window that says "indexing," or "conforming" the file. Then the program seems to hang. Not so! Even though I have a 'puter that exceeds the specs required, the program is SLOW importing and converting. I have found that opening a stock project with settings that match the video, importing the .vobs into the organizer first, and then right-clicking on a file in the organizer, then selecting "edit in Premiere Elements" works best. BUT you have to wait until Premiere finish indexing and conforming the file before you add the next one. That's where you have to look at the tiny little status bar at the lower right-hand corner of the window. And that progress bar often hangs at 98%, so you just have to hope and import the next one. As you import the files through the organizer, the files disappear from the organizer screen, and appear on the Premiere organizer screen one by one, each replacing the las one, and each is added at the end of the timeline after a lengthy period of indexing and conforming. The best part is that often Premiere does not give ANY indication that it is importing your file if it has not finished indexing and conforming the previous file you imported. Everything seems to freeze, but if you go away, fix supper or run to the store, when you come back, everything is done.
I think the "freezes" that so many report is just that the program is working and it gives no indication that it IS working, and that what we have asked it to do will take some time, and the user is impatient. Having started my computing in 1984 with a state-of-the-art Tandy EX with 2 floppy 5.25 drives and Compuserve, I understand about things taking time.

Good points about things taking time. I've not Imported anything but DV-AVI material into PrE, so I'm not sure about where, and how clearly the Progress Bar is displayed. In PrPro, it's bright and clear in the lower-right of the GUI.
Three things must happen to allow GOP (Group of Pictures) material to be edited, and even on a very fast computer, it's best to wait for the completion of these three tasks:
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2.) The Audio is Conformed to 32-bit floating point to allow for editing.
3.) A Waveform Display file (.PEK) must also be generated.
These tasks are both CPU and I/O (HDD) intensive. On a very fast machine, the Progress Bar goes pretty quickly. I can Import a 1 hour GOP file and be up and editing in about 3 mins. on my workstation w/ PrPro. Do not know if there is any speed difference between PrE and PrPro in this respect.
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Hunt

Using ARD to change user settings

I was wondering if it was possible to use ARD to change the desktop background for all users? This kinda turns into two questions for me since I know nothing about Macs. First, is there an "all users" settings type thing at all, if so where? Second, is there some sort of config file that would store the location of the desktop background so I could eventually copy a new background to a location and change that file to point to the new file, thus upgrading the desktop background?

Hi,
I have created a script to change other functions of remote macs. So this version is an adaptation of my script to your needs. Note that I am changing the admin password. For other user just change the admin name and password accordingly.
Let me know if you need further assistance.
Start of Applescript------
property my_ip : ""
property my_password : "the admin password"
property new_password : "the new admin password"
tell application "Remote Desktop"
-- this is a fixed group of macs that should be added or deleted as needed in ARD
set the_list to computers in computer list "to change"
repeat with i from 1 to number of items in the_list
set this_item to item i of the_list
-- if mac offline skip it
if the status message of this_item is "Available" then
set my_ip to Internet address of this_item
-- log as admin into remote mac
set my_log to "ssh admin@" & my_ip
tell application "Terminal"
activate
-- log as admin
do script my_log
-- there is in some cases the security issue.
-- RSA key fingerprint is ... Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
delay 3
do script "yes" in window 1
delay 3
-- enter the password
do script my_password in window 1
-- do whatever in the remote mac, in this case change admin password
do script "passwd" in window 1
-- Ternimal asks fro existing password
do script my_password in window 1
delay 2
-- Enter new password twice
do script new_password in window 1
delay 2
do script new_password in window 1
delay 5
-- close connection to remote mac
do script "exit" in window 1
end tell
end if
end repeat
end tell
----------end -------
Regards
Mauricio

Using ARD to change user accounts

Hi,
I would like to find out whether are there any way if i could use the unix command or script files to change the username and password? Would appreciate if you anyone could assist me? Are there any recommended textbook for apple scripting or apple remote desktop software?
Thank you!
Cheers,
Steph

Hi,
I have created a script to change other functions of remote macs. So this version is an adaptation of my script to your needs. Note that I am changing the admin password. For other user just change the admin name and password accordingly.
Let me know if you need further assistance.
Start of Applescript------
property my_ip : ""
property my_password : "the admin password"
property new_password : "the new admin password"
tell application "Remote Desktop"
-- this is a fixed group of macs that should be added or deleted as needed in ARD
set the_list to computers in computer list "to change"
repeat with i from 1 to number of items in the_list
set this_item to item i of the_list
-- if mac offline skip it
if the status message of this_item is "Available" then
set my_ip to Internet address of this_item
-- log as admin into remote mac
set my_log to "ssh admin@" & my_ip
tell application "Terminal"
activate
-- log as admin
do script my_log
-- there is in some cases the security issue.
-- RSA key fingerprint is ... Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
delay 3
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delay 3
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do script my_password in window 1
-- do whatever in the remote mac, in this case change admin password
do script "passwd" in window 1
-- Ternimal asks fro existing password
do script my_password in window 1
delay 2
-- Enter new password twice
do script new_password in window 1
delay 2
do script new_password in window 1
delay 5
-- close connection to remote mac
do script "exit" in window 1
end tell
end if
end repeat
end tell
----------end -------
Regards
Mauricio

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I manage two school Mac labs and have relied on ARD for many years!
I have been unable to successfully write an ARD script to to force my lab machines to restart in "Single User Mode". This would allow me to run AppleJack 1.5 remotely.
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When you say you have "OSX" but not the "original install disks" do you mean the mac originally came with an earlier version and you don't have those disks, but you have a retail copy of Tiger?
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What is SMU?
*Is your data backed up? If not, prioritise that unless you can afford to loose it.*
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Do you have another Mac? If so and you have the retail Tiger, you might be able to use Pacifist to replace BootX (in /System/Library/CoreServices). Alternatively, if the other Mac is running the same version of the OS and is also a PPC Mac, you could try copying the file from that machine.
Before you do any of this (with the exception of the permissions repair), try to backup any data you need if that's at all possible.
- cfr

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If I do a search while logged in using the account we set the application up with then the search works fine and it returns records as expected.
If I use a different account - one that has full control over the app, then the exact same search fails with the following message:
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Suggestions:
Ensure words are spelled correctly.
Try using synonyms or related searches.
Try broadening your search by searching from a different site.
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Hi Alex, thanks for your response and apologies about the late reply - didn't realise someone had responded until now!
Agreed that this looks like a permissions issue, but we're stumped as to what it could be. The 'test' account displays this problem - if we try and search on 06BSL
we get no results, but it does appear that this account has full control over this document (see below).
Note that the 'Manage Permissions' page presents a comment 'This list item inherits permissions from its parent. (Customer QA & Product Management)' which is what we're
expecting.
The indexing schedule is set to 5 minutes.
Appreciate your help with this, as we've spent a huge amount of time on this problem but don't seem to be any closer to a resolution.
Cheers,
Damian
Check permissions result (this result is the same for the list or for the document itself):
Permission levels given to test (DOMAIN\test)
Full Control
Given through the "QA Application Owners" group.
Design, Contribute, Read
Given through the "QA Application Members" group.

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ARD for casual users?

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