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PrefEditTasks: Displaying a preference manifest

PrefEdit can be used to display the complete contents of Mac OS X preference manifest files. Perform the following steps to open a preference manifest:

  1. Locate the preference manifest file. In most cases, preference manifest files will be embedded into the bundle resources of the applications they belong to. For this reason, they may not be visible in the Finder or in Spotlight by default.
  2. Use the menu item File > Open… or press ⌘+O to navigate to the file. You may need to use the key combination ⌘+⇧+G to enter the POSIX path of the file because it is hidden. You can also use the Finder's context menu Show Package Contents to open the hidden bundle contents of an application, then drag the icon of the manifest file onto the icon of PrefEdit.
  3. A document window will open. It will show the complete decoded contents of the preference manifest. When selecting an entry in the table, details for the respective manifest key will be displayed in the bottom part of the window. When you have selected a Union Policy Manifest Key (UPK), press the button Show Policy… at Default to display further details of the policy.

You can only view but not change entries in the manifest.

Further Information: Viewing manifest files