Anyway to make fake "About this mac" box

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
So I work in a school where the head IT guy is a dick and won't let me run Tiger on my computer.



Is there some way to hack the "About this mac" dialog box to make it look like panther?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    Sorry about your IT department.



    Try:

    http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...+mac+processor



    Essentially modify the file:

    /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/AboutThisMac.strings



    I would think that you would replace

    "ABOUT_BOX_VERSION_FORMAT_STRING" = "Version %@";



    with



    "ABOUT_BOX_VERSION_FORMAT_STRING" = "Version 10.3.9";



    or whatever, probably will need to reboot (or log off/log in).



    You can edit the build number as well, and give yourself a quad G5 if you want.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    PhotoShop.



    As for realtime hack, I don't think so...



    Even if you managed to fake the dialog from the Apple menu (no simple task, though chych seems to be on the right track), he might be able to SSH or telnet into the box and see it report a post-Panther OS build #, or recognize processes that are unique to Tiger, including but not limited to unique dock items such as Dashboard.



    Does he say why you're not allowed to use Tiger?
  • Reply 3 of 6
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    <alright this is funny, when two people posting responses correct their posts simultaneously to compensate for the other post's criticisms>
  • Reply 4 of 6
    not sure how hacking the CoreServices would impact things like Software Update or Permissions fix (I'm presuming each might wipe the hack you made, but might also be pooched by it), but if the IT guy is good and/or thorough, he can still sniff out the OS differences despite your cosmetic masking.



    You still haven't explained why... but maybe your IT dude hasn't either.



    as for chych's suggestion of giving yourself a Quad G5, I'd suggest it might have the opposite effect of making the guy go away... you'd be in for a full sniffer dog inspection because he'd assume you're on crack or had stolen a prototype.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    Quote:

    Originally posted by curiousuburb

    [B]if the IT guy is good and/or thorough, he can still sniff out the OS differences despite your cosmetic masking.



    I don't think so, he was completely unaware of it until a librarian ratted me out after manually inspecting my machine. Unless he mounts a personal vendetta against me, I doubt he could find out over the network.





    Quote:

    You still haven't explained why... but maybe your IT dude hasn't either.



    His arguments are that he cannot assure that the installed copy of Tiger has a license, even though I could show him proof that I bought it. Really lame argument, especially because I highly doubt that Apple has ever prosecuted a school for licensing issues.



    My belief is that he is just a control freak who enjoys having his way.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    regreg Posts: 832member
    When I use to work in my kids computer lab, all the shared computers had to have the same OS. Yes they were also anal about licenses. If your computer was not shared and you could show a retail box you were allowed to run what ever OS you wanted. It might take longer for a tech to work on it and if something really bad happened the tech cannot erase and use an image disk to reload everything. The only time we had to erase and reinstall on the macs was to get rid of all the excess files and programs that were downloaded on the machines. Another option is to have Tiger on an external HD and boot from that. I use to do that with panther on machines that were running 10.1.



    reg
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