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Thanks for checking out my blog. There's a good chance you're here because you had a class with me or met me at a tradeshow. I'm an Apple- and Adobe-certified instructor from Boston, and a full-time trainer for Future Media Concepts.


Feel free to take off your shoes, get comfortable, and have a look around. All of my previous posts can be searched by the keywords along the left side of the page, my resume can be found on the right, and if you care to write me with a question, my address there, too. Please, don't hesitate- your questions give me material to write about (and improve my classes).


And YES, I am available for consulting!

osx
One question I am consistently asked in OS Server class is what happens if your users are bound to an Active Directory server, and their password is changed? What happens on the Mac end of things? More specifically, what happens to your keychain password? Well unfortunately, your keychain doesn't talk to AD, so you have to update it manually. This can be done with the Keychain assistant, and any misconfiguration can possibly be fixed with the first aid assistant, but this isn't very intuitive for the user. Keychain Minder can handle this task automatically.

 
Keychain Minder

Essentially this app checks to see if the default keychain, which is usually the login keychain, was unlocked during the login process. If it was unlocked the app does not show in the dock or display anything it just quickly quits. The idea is that a user won't even notice this is going on if everything works out well.

If the keychain is not unlocked it will display a dialog box prompting the user to put in the old and new passwords. It will then attempt to reset the default keychain. If successful this will also cause the keychain to be unlocked and usable by any apps on the machine.

If the user has forgotten their old password, they can create a new keychain with their new password and backup the old one.

Also, when entering in their password Keychain Minder checks to make sure it is in fact their login password. This way there is no chance of them mistyping the password.

The app also creates a pref file, com.afp548.KeychainMinder.plist, with one entry. Set this to NO if you don't want the app to check at login. This is useful for when you set this application as a login item through managed preferences but some users want to have a unique login keychain password.

How do I use this?

Run this as a login item for your users. You configure that in the Accounts preference pane of the System Preferences.

Why do this?

The primary function of this application to keep the users from getting confused when they've changed their password through a web interface or from the PC. When logging back into OS X their login password no longer matches their login keychain password so things like Safari start yelling about a locked keychain. This is all rather cryptic and confusing for the user, so this app hopes to help smooth things out.

Get more info and the download here:  http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=20050306085715981

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