New to Mac: How to IT power use

Nagaram · November 10

I work in IT and I have committed myself to using a Mac for day to day tasks so that I can be more familiar with MacOS whenever one of our few Mac users needs help.

Our mac users are pretty simple they just need access to Okta SSO, a few SMB shares, and an intranet system. We're deploying Threatlocker so we don't have to give them local Admin anymore for installing software.One of the problems we're having is getting the laptops set up on Active Directory. The method we used previously locked the laptops to the local network. So when they tried to go WFH they couldn't log in to the computer to access the VPN. This happened before I got there so I can't give any details on what they did right or wrong, but if there's any suggestions on how to set up a mac onto an Active Directory domain that avoids it, please let me know.

Anyways, I've been doing this challenge for months and I kinda really hate using MacOS just because my normal flows are so drastically challenged. I'm looking for tips to get better at MacOS so I don't hate it as much.

Problems:

1) I don't have access to Active Directory Manager - This is both kinda big and not an issue. My fix is having an RDP connection to my Windows work laptop or using AD Manager on the browser, but I prefer both local app access and none web apps. This is also my problem with all Windows server management stuff like DNS and DHCP work. Again, both my biggest problem and also something I don't think is going to work anywhere as easily as just remoting into my windows PC or a VM.

2) Screenshots - I know how to make a snippet and I might just be stupid, but I can't CMD+V to paste it into teams or whatever. I have to time it with the pop up in the bottom right and drag it into teams from there.

3) Tiling - Holy shit is window management awful. I have 2x2k monitors. The left monitor is always Firefox with Okta+Tickets+Intranet with my right monitor being Outlook on one half the screen, teams in the top right, VOIP in the bottom right. I never turn off the mac and just leave it like this, painfully spaced manually to the way I like it (Something that was in powertoys in 10 and is BUILT IN to 11 also works great on my PopOS computer with tiling). That set up is fine, however, I have been working on a project needing to swap between excel, firefox, a VM to remote into switches and swap to a different RDP session. Doesn't matter, it's a mess and I can't alt tab or easily swap between them other than clicking the icons from the dock.

4) SMB Shares - Does Mac just suck for this? I constantly need access to like 4-6 different SMB shares for testing and share of files and I'm CONSTANTLY re-adding these shares. it's not permanent but it saves it in finder. so I can connect to server and it will do it with save credentials. It's just that on windows its

Open Explorer > Click share

But mac its

Open Finder > Click Go > click Connect to Server > Click SMB share > Click file I want to get into >it opens in Finder

This sucks and I don't know if its a skill issue.

ANYWAYS, I assume a lot of my issues aren't going to get resolved, but I would still like what everyone does in MacOS and how they optimize their work flow. Please talk about how you optimize Mac for IT work.

seanondemand · November 10

Not an IT guy but re: #2: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/102646

if you hold control while doing any of the keyboard shortcuts, it copies to the clipboard. IMO screenshots are one of the things macOS does best

maplepants · November 14

On 11/10/2024 at 3:02 AM, Nagaram said:

2) Screenshots - I know how to make a snippet and I might just be stupid, but I can't CMD+V to paste it into teams or whatever. I have to time it with the pop up in the bottom right and drag it into teams from there.

I like to take all my screenshots with the "Screenshot and Recording Options" setting. I have a WASD mechanical keyboard and the Print Screen button is F13 in macOS.

On 11/10/2024 at 3:02 AM, Nagaram said:

4) SMB Shares - Does Mac just suck for this? I constantly need access to like 4-6 different SMB shares for testing and share of files and I'm CONSTANTLY re-adding these shares. it's not permanent but it saves it in finder. so I can connect to server and it will do it with save credentials. It's just that on windows its

The easiest way to mount shares at boot is go to "Login Items" hit + and add the folder you want to automount there. It will mean that a finder window to this location will open when you log in.

In terms of tiling, it's not something I do so I am not 100% on this but people generally seem to like https://rectangleapp.com/

And then for your Active Directory woes, I can just sympathize. Where I work, we don't use AD for our Mac logins because it was just a pain for absolutely everyone involved.