Missing Applications in Simple Finder

I created a user account and "limited" what applications they can use. However, after logging into that account, I found that the shortcuts/aliases of some of these applications are missing from the "My Applications" folder in Simple Finder. (For example, Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint shortcuts/aliases should be there but are not.) Any ideas?

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Generic document icons for applications in Simple Finder

I have an account setup with Parental Controls and using the Simple Finder. In the My Applications folder of the simple finder, all of the apps show up with the default blank document icon instead of the correct application icon. How do I fix this?

Hi Warren -
I imagine you already tried this, but just to be sure, did you change the default .tiff app in Finder? Does that change the icon? If so, what happens when you then change the default back to your app?
If the above doesn't help, what happens when you change the Bundle Name and Executable File name of your app, then set the default .tiff app to the "new" app? Not saying this is practical if you've already distributed your app, but it might help to know the result.
Here's some misc info that may give you more ideas: [http://ask.metafilter.com/67832/Changing-filetypes-icons-in-OS-X].
Btw, we have at least two or three experts around here who will probably know exactly what to do. I'm only filling in until one of them shows up. So if none of the above is useful, stay tuned.
\- Ray

Missing Apps in Simple Finder

I have set up Simple Finder in 10.4 for my 7 year old but the non-Apple apps I chose for it to display do not show up in his 'applications' folder in the simple finder. One is KidBrowser and another is a game. In the 'Accounts' section of the System Preferences I have clicked his account, selected 'Parental Controls, checked the 'Finder and System' box and clicked on the 'Configure' button. I then selected the arrow for 'Applications' and clicked on the applications I wanted, including the two listed above. After clicking 'OK' on all the apllicable boxes to make the changes I restarted. Only the Apple appications show up.

OK, so I figured out a workaround since I posted that last message. It requires going into the NetInfo Manager like suggested in http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107672, but is easier, more likely to work with all applications and has added advantage that you can put files or anything in the folder.
You are changing the folder that appears in the Simple Finder user's dock. Settings for managed accounts are found in the user's mcx_settings accessible via NetInfo Manager. You can edit right in NetInfo Manager, but it's hard, as you can only see on line at a time. So try the following instuctions.
1. Make sure the user you are making changes to is not logged in.
2. Create a folder that will contain the items that should appear to the user in Simple Finder (for example /Users/Shared/SimpleFinderApps/).
3. Drag aliases for all applications, files, etc that you want to appear to the user in Simple Finder into /Users/Shared/SimpleFinderApps/.
4. Open NetInfo Manager (/Applications/Utilities), then from the Security menu, choose Authenticate and enter your administrator account name and password
5. Using the columns in NetInfo Manager, navigate to the user who you want to edit. For example, for "UserX", you would go to /users/userx in the columns.
6. Locate the mcx_settings property, and select its value by double-clicking the field to its right (it should begin something like "<?xml version". All of the text should be highlighted.
7. Press Command-C to copy the contents of the mcx_settings property to the Clipboard.
8. Go to any text editing program (TextEdit for example) and paste the contents into a new file.
9. Save the file and make a copy of it so you can edit and still have a backup if something gets screwed up.
10. In the copy, find the line "<key>com.apple.dock</key>". This is where the settings for items in the dock are kept.
11. Below "<key>com.apple.dock</key>", there is a line "<string>/Users/userx/Library/Managed Items/My Applications/</string>", which is the link to where the system keeps the applications you have said to make available to the user. Change it so it reflects the folder you created in step 2 (for example "<string>/Users/Shared/SimpleFinderApps/</string>").
12. Save the file with name like "mcx_settings edited", so you can go back and do more changes later if necessary.
13. Copy all text in the file and paste it back into the mcx_settings property in NetInfo Manager.
14. Save changes in NetInfo Manager.
15. Log in to the affected user to see if it works.
By poking around in the mcx_settings file you can change other things, such as which System Preference panes a user can access, whether they can burn discs, etc.
WARNING ONE: This works for me with all applications I tried. I would guess that Apple has a reason for preventing some applications from appearing in Simple Finder, so this may cause problems for some applications.
WARNING TWO: More of a reminder. Simple Finder does NOT restrict which applications a user can run, despite a misleading statement to that effect when setting it up. It only presents a simpler-than-normal interface to users. There are a number of ways for Simple Finder users to run applications that are not in the My Applications folder, whether you use this tip or not. To completely restrict which applications a user can run, choose "Some Limits" instead of "Simple Finder" when setting the user up.
20" iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Simple Finder - Icon's Missing but Application Works

I've got a number of applications on my kids two accounts that under the simple finder they show up as the blank page with the alias icon. I've tried repairing permissions, selecting/unselecting the setup and I've been unable to figure out how to get them back.
The accounts are set up as simple finder, and to limit the applications. I have checked the apps in question and even checked/unchecked them trying to 'reset' them.
Any suggestions?

Was it candybar that deleted your finder icon?
if so you just drag the custom icon (which is blank for the size you are using it in probably, reference picture) will POOF and your system icon should be restored. THEN you killAll Dock, which candybar does for you.
which version of CandyBar do you have? the latest is the only one that will work effectivly on Lion.
in icon composer, and when you preview an icon, you'll see that it is really a container with multiple images. A reason why your icons are coming up blank might be that the spaces for the the other icon sizes are empty. if you go into Icon Composer, you can drag in the other sizes and save as an ico. Then you'll have a working icon.

Wanted to put a file via a drag and drop into applications on my finder sidebar. it missed and landed in the sidebar itself. i can not remove it. i can not even highlight it. how can i remove it from the sidebar.

I wanted to put a file via a drag and drop into applications on my finder sidebar. it missed and landed in the sidebar itself. i can not remove it. i can not even highlight it. how can i remove it from the sidebar.

Try holding down the Command key and dragging the file well off the sidebar.
Hope this helps.

Application does not show in Simple Finder

I recently set up a new computer for my kids and I am using the built-in parental controls in 10.6 to limit access to certain applications. I have turned on Simple Finder to make the computer easier for them to use. The issue I am running into is that one app, called Mia, will not show up in the Simple Finder no matter what I try. When I view the list of approved apps it is checked in the system pref. The only thing that I can tell which might cause this is that the app requires Rosetta. However, I am not sure if that is the issue. I tried creating an alias to the app and an automator application that launches the app, but even if I select those they don't show up in the Simple Finder. The other selected applications do show up.
Computer is a new MacBook on 10.6 with all the latest updates. Tried repairing permissions, etc., already. Any ideas on troubleshooting this would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Todd

How was this application originally installed? Was it by drag and drop? If so then it is owned by you not by the Applications folder's owner which may be why you are having the problem. Give this a try:
1. Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder.
2. At the prompt enter or paste the following:
sudo chown -R root:admin
Put a space after "root:admin". Drag the icon for this application into the Terminal window then press RETURN. You will be prompted for your admin password which will not be echoed. Then enter:
killall Finder
This procedure may fix the problem.

Approved applications not showing up in simple finder (parental controls)

I set up a limited access account for my son and turned on the simple finder option. I went through and selected the programs that I want him to have access to. However, not all the selected applications show up in the simple finder of the limited account. A few programs that were downloaded (a simple paint like program and a word processing program) don't show up, and I can't figure out how to get my son access to these short of turning off the simple finder. Any suggestions?
Thanks!

I'm not sure what the answer to this would be, because I don't use the Simple Finder mode much. However, you may have to specify in the Parental Controls preferences exactly which applications you want on his account. For example, instead of taking off some applications, add on the paint application and such. Post back here if you need more details or if that doesn't work. Another thing you could always do is to copy an application over your account into his, although I'm not entirely sure how you could do that. Hope this helps.

How do I put application icons on the desktop in simple finder?

The Simple Finder would be a lot simpler if I could put icons to open applications on the desktop instead of buried in a folder. Is there any way to do that? I'm sure there must be, but I can't find it. If I click and hold on one of the icons in the applications folder, it just opens.

Maybe this will allow you to do what you want.
From Finder Help.
Change preferences for a user’s Simple Finder
In the simple Finder, choose Finder > Run Full Finder, then enter your administrator name and password. In full Finder you can make the changes you want.
When you’re done, choose Finder > Return to Simple Finder.

Blank application icon with Simple Finder

I have parental controls turned on for my kids so that they can only see the simple finder. However, one of the application I've approved for them to use, Photo Booth, shows up in their simple finder as a blank icon that I cannot click on. The others work fine. I've tried switching between simple finder and not, but no luck. This has happened before with many icons turning blank, and I had to resort to deleting their account and recreating it. I don't want to go through that exercise again. Any suggestions?

An "encrypted disk image" is something that can be created using tools included with OS X and might be satisfactory for encrypting arbitrary files. The procedure is described here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107333
Keep in mind that the priority with encryption is keeping your data "secure", but not necessarily maintaining the integrity of the data - since the entire contents of the disk image are effectively wrapped up into a single encrypted file, even minor corruption of that file could potentially result in the loss of all of the data so maintaining up to date backups is essential.
There are a few other things to be aware of, for example: When the disk image is mounted, it behaves just like a regular, non-encrypted volume so other users with access to the computer would be able to access its contents. The contents are only secure while the image is not mounted. For this reason, it might make sense to split up files into groups - things for which security isn't as important, or which need to be accessed frequently might benefit from being stored in a .dmg separate from the one containing the most sensitive, infrequently accessed files.
Don't share the contents of the encrypted disk image over the network. Obviously this doesn't make any sense from a security perspective, but aside from that, if a local user and a remote user both make changes to any part of the dmg while it is mounted, there is pretty much guaranteed to be corruption, and a greatly increased risk of data loss.
And unlike "Filevault", a stand alone disk image doesn't come with a "master password" backdoor so if the password is lost, its contents "will be irretrievably lost"...

Manage Items in Simple Finder

I have a three year old who likes watching BBC iPlayer. I have created a managed account and invoked Simple Finder to limit the potential damage he could cause to the computer from random mouse clicks etc.
This works great for the most part but the down side is that my computers' Shared Folder appears (right next to the Trash Can). You don't need to be Einstein to figure out what is going to happen to all my photos, videos and documents
I have tried everything i know to remove the Shared Folder from the Dock - but it is locked - EVEN if i run Full Finder!
Can someone please tell me how i can fix this clear oversight?
I really would like to create an account that automatically runs one application (safari) to one web site (or white list) and logs out if they quit the application. A really locked down account.
Anyway - removing the Shared Folder would be enough - if possible.
Advice please?
Message was edited by: The RaTBaG

I have a three year old who likes watching BBC iPlayer. I have created a managed account and invoked Simple Finder to limit the potential damage he could cause to the computer from random mouse clicks etc.
This works great for the most part but the down side is that my computers' Shared Folder appears (right next to the Trash Can). You don't need to be Einstein to figure out what is going to happen to all my photos, videos and documents
I have tried everything i know to remove the Shared Folder from the Dock - but it is locked - EVEN if i run Full Finder!
Can someone please tell me how i can fix this clear oversight?
I really would like to create an account that automatically runs one application (safari) to one web site (or white list) and logs out if they quit the application. A really locked down account.
Anyway - removing the Shared Folder would be enough - if possible.
Advice please?
Message was edited by: The RaTBaG

Allowed Apps don't show in Simple Finder

Ok, because of the nature of this problem I didn't know exactly where to post this, so hopefully this is a good place...
I work at a High School where we've got about 30 or so student laptops available for teachers to check out to use in their classes. They are all iBook, iBook G4, PowerBook G4, and MacBook computers, and all running OSX 10.4.11. The problem I'm having is with Microsoft Office X and Simple Finder. I have it installed on all of the computers, but for some reason the MacBooks won't show it in Simple Finder. It works just fine on all of the other computers, but the 6 that are MacBooks won't work. I set them up the same as all the others and nothing... I came up with the idea to try logging into a student account, running full finder and create aliases for Word, Powerpoint and Excel. I then returned to simple finder and they were all there and worked, but as soon as I logged out of the student account or restarted the computer the aliases were gone...
Hopefully that makes sense. It's really frustrating because other than this one problem the computers are all setup the exact same, so I don't know why the MacBooks can't just do it like the others do. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
(And if you know how to resolve this, in searching the forums I found a very similar (almost identical problem) post that is still unresolved in the leopard forums: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8358649&#8358649)
Thanks

I found a number of similar threads - it's apparently a bug.
I came up with the idea to try logging into a student account, running full finder and create aliases for Word, Powerpoint and Excel. I then returned to simple finder and they were all there and worked, but as soon as I logged out of the student account or restarted the computer the aliases were gone.
It sounds as if you are putting the aliases into
username/Library/Managed Items/My Applications/
That seems to be the right idea, with further workarounds designed to stop them from being deleted when you log out. One way, according to [this thread|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3183420&#3183420] is to lock the My Applications folder after putting in the aliases.
Another workaround described in [this thread|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5600449&#5600449] is to place the Office aliases somewhere else accessible, either in a subfolder of My Applications, or in the Documents or Shared folders.

Simple Finder bugs

Has anyone else experienced problems with using Simple Finder under 10.6?
Since I administrate a number of Macs for public access within our library, I've been using Simple Finder for several years to make my life easier. Starting with a 10.5.x update, the ability to "Run Full Finder" under Simple Finder broke. (One can enter an administrative username/password, but they are not given the full Finder. In fact, nothing seems to happen at all.) Running 10.6 on a brand new iMac confirms that this problem still exists with the new version of the operating system. I'd like to see Apple address this problem at some point. Right now, if I need to make a minor tweak, I need to login to the administrative account, disable Simple Finder for the account needing tweaking, log back into that account and make the tweak, and then log back into the administrative account to turn Simple Finder back on. It would be so much easier if "Run Full Finder" worked again as it did under 10.4.
A new problem I've encountered under 10.6 involves adding non-Apple applications to the Simple Finder's "My Applications" menu. I installed the latest version of Firefox and verified both it and Safari were selected within "Internet" under Parental Controls / Applications for the managed account. However, when I log into the managed account, only Safari appears within the menu. Very strange... I had no problems adding Firefox under 10.5.
I'd be interested in hearing reports of others experiences.
--Curtis

Hey CentralMiddleSchool,
According to the following document, if you’re an administrator for the user’s computer, you can make changes. So, as long as your students don't have the Administrator password, you should be ok:
OS X Mountain Lion: Change preferences for a user’s simple Finder
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10747
There's more information about it here:
OS X Mountain Lion: Set up a simple desktop and Finder
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10760
Welcome to Apple Support Communities!
All the best,
Delgadoh

Simple Finder issue displaying icons

Hi,
I've installed the Opera browser with the admin account, then created a normal user.
I then enable Parental Control on that normal account, select simple finder and only allow Opera from loading (and go into the list and make sure it's selected).
When I load with the user, Opera is not in the "My applications" folder, what's wrong?
If I disable use simple finder the icon shows up and runs fine.
Help please!

Sometimes people want to use "Parental Controls" to limit what a user can do, but with a three year old, you probably don't have to worry too much about that. In that sort situation, try removing "Parental Controls" from the account (or you can use "Some Limits" if you wish).
Then log into the account and arrange the "Dock" the way you want. Next, open "/Applications" > "Utilities" > "Terminal.app" and enter the commands below, which turn on the Finder's simplified interface (big icons; one-click access), and lock the "Dock" to prevent items from being removed:<pre>
defaults write com.apple.finder InterfaceLevel simple
defaults write com.apple.dock contents-immutable -bool true</pre>
Then log out and back in. This doesn't fully reproduce the "Simple Finder" interface, but it covers a couple of the most obvious aspects. If necessary, futher settings can be introduced, à la carte as it were...

Simple Finder & Custom Dock Icons

Feel free to throw a "DUH!" on me, but I can't figure this out.
I'm trying to set up an account for my 3 year old. She's gotten good at using the mouse (for a three year old). I have an account setup to only run some Dr Seuss games, but you have to go into the Applications folder to get to the games. She can't read the folder icons so I want to have only the Dr Seuss icon on the dock but I can't seem to do this.
Any thoughts?

Sometimes people want to use "Parental Controls" to limit what a user can do, but with a three year old, you probably don't have to worry too much about that. In that sort situation, try removing "Parental Controls" from the account (or you can use "Some Limits" if you wish).
Then log into the account and arrange the "Dock" the way you want. Next, open "/Applications" > "Utilities" > "Terminal.app" and enter the commands below, which turn on the Finder's simplified interface (big icons; one-click access), and lock the "Dock" to prevent items from being removed:<pre>
defaults write com.apple.finder InterfaceLevel simple
defaults write com.apple.dock contents-immutable -bool true</pre>
Then log out and back in. This doesn't fully reproduce the "Simple Finder" interface, but it covers a couple of the most obvious aspects. If necessary, futher settings can be introduced, à la carte as it were...

Simple Finder/Parental Controls Problem

I recently did an erase and install on my eMac and am now having problems with Simple Finder and Parental Controls.
I have an account set up for my daughter and I want to have Simple Finder running with about a half dozen or so applications for her to use. Prior to the erase-and-install, I had this set up and running fine. But now, even though I select all the programs I want under the Parental Controls preferences, only three show up (Safari, Dictionary, and TextEdit).
I tried deleting and re-creating the account, repairing permissions, turning around twice and clicking my heels together, etc. with no success.
Any ideas? Thanks!

I ran disk utility and repaired the permissions--is that similar to what you suggest?
When I did a erase-and-install of Leopard, I assume that it ran through a disk inspection and repair routine. But perhaps something more is needed.

Missing Applications in Simple Finder

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