locking down the desktop

[Gavin McCullagh]

Hi,

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008, btabor wrote:

> Gavin, thanks for your advice.
> How do I make the desktop read-only?

If you like commands and are logged in as the user in question:

	chmod a-w ~/Desktop

which says "CHange MODe" for all users (a), removing write (-w) privileges
on the folder called Desktop in my home directory (~).  Mode is another
word for permissions in Unix.

Alternatively, with the mouse you can 
	- click places->home folder
	- right-click on the desktop folder and choose "properties"
	- click the "permissions" tab
	- change the "owners" permissions to "access only"

The former may seem arcane, but it gets the job done and is easier to
document unambiguously.  It is possible for the users to undo this, but
maybe give it a go and see how you get on.

To go along with this, you should set firefox to save downloads to a
different folder -- otherwise it'll complain that it can't save files to
the desktop.  I'd suggest creating a "downloads" folder in the home
directory or if it's easier it could even be on the desktop.  Then, start
firefox:
	- click edit->preferences
	- select the "main" icon at the top of the new window
	- under "save files to", it probably says "desktop", click browse
	  and choose your dedicated downloads folder.

From then on, firefox will save files away from the desktop and people who
attempt to put files on the desktop will be refused write access.  They can
undo these permissions but see how it goes and if you need to enforce this
further we can give you more tips on that.  I'd say in 90% of cases, this
will be enough as you really just need to steer people away from saving to
the desktop.

Gavin