I’ve searched around but haven’t found much detail. I need to make a “preference mover script” to copy preference files from one computer to another. I am trying to find the file(s) where most of the user preferences are stored. There are some “com.apple.xxx.plist” files that have some things in them, but I am trying to find specifically the file or information for the preference of {Appearance, Dashboard, Expose, Dock, International, Keyboard/Mouse}.
If they are saved into one particular file, that’s great. If the values are spread about among several files, mingled with other prefs, I can read the plist info and stick it into the new file, if I only know where to look.
I would prefer to not have to use Terminal/command-line because IT has our workstations locked from using those, so I can’t be sure it will work on my user’s system reliably. But if that is the only way to handle it, then I will try.
Thanks,
Chris
Are all the machines that would run the script using Mac OS X 10.4?
Yes, all 10.4
Your original post starts off sounding like you wanted to move or duplicate plist files, but then heads towards creating a new plist file with information from several others.
Could you be a bit more specific about what you want to accomplish (not how you want to do it)?
I want to be able to move/copy a user’s preferences from one computer to another. Preference files for Adobe apps reside in known locations and seem to be relatively stable to just copy/move to another computer. I am unsure about System/Finder prefs and thier name/location/data structure to recreate/move them to a new machine.
This will get you all the preference panes in System Preferences
tell application "System Preferences" to set l to id of panes
There is also a bunch in ~/Library/Preferences/by Host/, but these tend to be tailored to the machine, i.e. window arrangements, etc.
With a few moments further thought, if I were in your place, I’d ask that question, which isn’t really an AppleScript question at the MacOSXhints forums. After a search for ready answers, if I didn’t find any, I’d ask "How do you migrate all your apps and preferences from an old Mac whatever to a new Mac whatever (be specific).