custom lock message (again)

If you do not want the client to know who locked their screen (for whatever reason) try the following. Note: If you're not comfortable hacking pref files... leave well alone.

(sic)

Since ARD 2.0, when an administrator locks a screen, the locked screen tells who did it. At times you might not want clients to know who is controlling the computer.

1. Make sure Apple Remote Desktop is not running, and navigate to the folder containing the application.
2. Control-click on the application and choose "Show Package Contents" from the pop-up menu.
3. In the window that opens, navigate to Contents/Resources/English.lproj (or whatever language you're using).
4. Find the file "LockScreenTask.strings" and create a backup copy in a safe place.
5. Open the original "LockScreenTask.strings." If you have the Developer Tools instaled, it will open in Xcode; otherwise, you can open it in TextEdit.
6. You should see the following:
7. /* Localized versions of task strings */
8. taskString = "Lock Screen";
9. taskDescription = "Lock Screen";
10. longTaskDescription = "Lock screens on target computers";
11. actionString = "Lock Screen";
12. lockedByString = "\r\rScreen locked by %@";
13. lockedByStringNoText = "Screen locked by %@";
14. defaultPictureName = "Lock Screen Picture";
15. // Task progress
16. kLockScreenRequestingOne = "Locking screen";
17. kLockScreenRequestingMany = "Locking screens";
18. Change the line lockedByStringNoText = "Screen locked by %@"; to lockedByStringNoText = "";. Now "Screen locked by" will not appear when you lock the screen of a client computer if you don't type a message, but it will still appear if you do.
19. If that's not sufficient, replace the line lockedByString = "rrScreen locked by %@"; with lockedByString = "rr";. Now the "Screen locked by..." message won't appear even if you send them a message.
20. Save your work, launch ARD, and you're done.

Create an image with the words, picture etc that you want the user to see. Save it as – Lock Screen Picture.jpg – push this out to your clients /Library/Preference folder. The next time you lock their screen this image will be the one they see. If you want to revert to the standard lock image, remove this image.