In this guide, I’ll demonstrate how to show hard drives on Mac desktop using Intune. We’ll create a configuration profile that modifies Finder preferences and displays all the hard drives on the macOS desktop.
By default, hard drives might not be displayed on the desktop. Mac users can manually display hard disks on their desktop by navigating to Finder > Settings, then selecting ‘Hard Disks‘ under the General section. For organizations managing Mac devices via Intune, administrators can streamline this process by using the settings catalog to apply the configuration remotely for users.
This feature is particularly useful for users who work with multiple drives, such as video editors, photographers, or IT professionals. If you prefer a cleaner desktop, however, you can modify the finder preferences and hide the hard disks on macOS with Intune policy.
Advantages of showing hard drives on macOS desktop
If you’re wondering why you should display hard disks on your Mac desktop, here are a few reasons:
- Quick Access: Having the hard drives visible on the desktop allows for faster access to frequently used drives. You can open them immediately without navigating through Finder.
- Easier File Management: Drag-and-drop functionality becomes more intuitive, allowing users to quickly move files between disks or external drives to folders.
- Better Organization: It provides a visual representation of the storage devices connected to your Mac, making it easier to manage and differentiate between them.
Show Hard Drives on Mac Desktop using Intune
Sign in to the Intune admin center. Navigate to Devices > macOS > Configuration profiles. Click new policy and select macOS platform and profile type as settings catalog. Enter the profile name and click Next. On the Settings picker window, search for “Show Hard Drives“. Now select User Experience > Finder and enable the setting Show Hard Drives on Desktop.
To display the hard drives on macOS desktop, set the Show Hard Drives on Desktop to True. Click Next.
In Intune, Scope tags determine which objects admins can see. In the Scope tags section, you specify scope tags. Click Next.
On the Assignments tab, assign the profile to the appropriate group of macOS users or devices. Click Next.
On the Review + Create page, review all the settings that you have defined so far and select Create. A new configuration profile will be created in Intune.
Sync Mac devices with Intune
Next, you must wait for the above policy to apply to the targeted groups, and once the macOS devices check in with the Intune service, they will receive the policy settings. You can also run Check Status in the company portal on your Mac device to retrieve the latest policies from Intune.
Monitoring the policy assignments
Once you have assigned the above policy to your macOS devices/user groups, the next step is to monitor the policy assignments.
In the Intune admin center, go to Devices > macOS > Configuration and select the policy that is configured to display hard disks on Mac Desktop. On the Overview page, you can see the count of devices that successfully received the policy.
If the policy fails to apply to specific macOS devices, click the “View Report” button to identify the exact device names. Intune administrators can also collect logs from remote Mac devices to further troubleshoot this issue.
End User Experience
Let’s verify if the Mac displays the hard disks on the desktop as per the policy we configured. Sign in to one of the Mac devices, and the desktop should now display all the hard disks. In the below screenshot we see “Macintosh HD” icon which is the default name for the primary hard drive (or solid-state drive) on a Mac, which also contains the operating system.
External hard drives should generally appear as icons on the Mac desktop if Finder’s preferences are set to display them.
Further Reading
Check out some of the useful guides related to Mac and Intune.
- Create Custom Attributes for macOS using Intune
- Enable Stealth Mode on macOS using Intune
- Rotate FileVault recovery keys for macOS in Intune
- Configure macOS Firewall Settings with Intune
- Set Mac Desktop Wallpaper using Intune
Still Need Help?
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