private browsing

[melmel]

I need to know how to disable the private browsing option permanently. I tried to do it under parental controls, but it said I couldn't do it because of the network or something like that.

If there's no way for me to lock that option, how else can I view sites visited? I've heard I can do it through my router, but I have no clue how to do that either.

Thank you for your help, I need this resolved asap.

 

[karazelle]

Disabling this is not really a supported feature in Safari, so it would be interesting to know the motivation behind your need to disable it? Is it only to know where someone has been?

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HACK! BACKUP SAFARI BEFORE PROCEEDING!

Disable Private Browsing using Interface Builder (see step 4 on how to get it)

1. Locate Safari in /Applications and Archive it (Right click/Control+click Safari and choose Make Archive).
2. Right click/Control+click Safari and choose "Show Package Contents"
3. Go to Contents, Resources, English.lproj folder or the folder for the language you want to edit, or multiple if you have multiple languages involved.
4. Doubleclick MainMenu.nib to open in interface builder (this requires that you installed XCode, which is often on the install DVD for MacOS X if you haven't installed it, or you can register for a free Apple Dev membership on http://developer.apple.com/ and download it for free there. You only need the latest version usually. Then repeat this step when you have it installed.
5. Look at the window with the safari menu, click on Safari to expand it, then click on the Private Browsing menu item.
6. Press the Delete key to disable it.
7. Cmd+S to save, then quit Interface Builder and launch Safari.
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The better and more ideal way to "solve" this issue, since a user could download another browser and run from their home folder to get around it, is to configure some kind of proxy and then direct all network traffic through that.

You could install MacOS X Server and configure a workgroup that the other Macs were member of and then use Workgroup Manager in that to configure their desktops, including Safari.

 

[karazelle]

You can do it through your router provided it has this feature. If you don't know, let us know what router you have.

Installing some kind of proxy service is the ideal solution, because then not only can you restrict where people visit usually, but you also actually increase the speed of your internet connection on common webpages somewhat. When you configure the computers to use a proxy, its important that they don't run with administrative rights in their user accounts, or else they can just disable the proxy. It will also be important that they don't know or easily guess the admin password and you might look into ways to disable booting from optical media to reset passwords. Apples firmware protection tool is explained here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1352