Anilrgowda

We have a mixed Mac and PC network based on Server 2003 and whenever the mac's browse the network they leave a trail of .DS STORE files. From what I have heard, there is no way to stop the finder from doing this. When I was doing research on Mac / Windows integration - ADMit Mac was able to get around this by using a separate interface for browsing the network. Are there standalone applications like this? I am not interested in replacing the finder. I ended up just using the built in integration in OS X. Is there any application like that part of ADMit that allows browsing of the network without leaving behind .ds stores? If I ended up buying licenses for ADMit Mac, would I be able to transfer over all the Mac's that are currently using the built in components without having to un bind them and re bind them with ADMit Mac? Another option, has anyone made, or is it possible to have a script run on the file server that automatically deletes these files? I am aware of AppleOff (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/18885), but I was looking for a windows based solution.

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Anilrgowda

According to Apple ( http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301711 ) :

Mac OS X 10.4: How to prevent .DS_Store file creation over network connections

This article contains advanced material intended only for those who are looking for information on .DS_Store files. If you do not already have an opinion on this matter, you can disregard this article.

To configure a Mac OS X user account so that .DS_Store files are not created when interacting with a remote file server using the Finder, follow the steps below.
Note: This will affect the user's interactions with SMB/CIFS, AFP, NFS, and WebDAV servers.

1. Open the Terminal.
2. Type:
defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true
3. Press Return.
4. Restart the computer.

If you want to prevent .DS_Store file creation for other users on the same computer, log in to each user account and perform the steps above—or distribute a copy of your newly modified com.apple.desktopservices.plist file to the ~/Library/Preferences folder of other target users.

These steps do not prevent the Finder from creating .DS_Store files on the local volume. These steps do not prevent previously existing .DS_Store files from being copied to the remote file server. Please note that disabling the creation of .DS_Store files on remote file servers can cause unexpected behavior in the Finder (click here for an example).

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