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Fleet Desktop guide: How to hide macOS menu bar icon #48868

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Fleet Desktop guide: How to hide macOS menu bar icon
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31 changes: 26 additions & 5 deletions articles/fleet-desktop.md
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Expand Up @@ -10,13 +10,14 @@ Fleet Desktop unlocks two key benefits:

If your end users have a hard time finding Fleet Desktop in the macOS menu bar, you can optionally deploy the [Fleet Desktop app](https://fleetdm.com/software-catalog/fleet-desktop-darwin). Additionally, to remind end users that they're failing policies, you can deploy [this configuration profile](https://github.com/fleetdm/fleet/blob/8cd2da576b01075db63d0a254ae597291c1d3d96/it-and-security/lib/macos/configuration-profiles/fleet-desktop-login-item.mobileconfig) to open this app everytime the end user logs in or restarts their Mac.

## Install Fleet Desktop
For information on how to install Fleet Desktop, visit: [Adding Hosts](https://fleetdm.com/docs/using-fleet/adding-hosts#fleet-desktop).
## Install and upgrade

## Upgrade Fleet Desktop
Once installed, Fleet Desktop will be automatically updated via Fleetd. To learn more, visit: [Self-managed agent updates](https://fleetdm.com/docs/deploying/fleetctl-agent-updates#self-managed-agent-updates).
Fleet Desktop is bundled in Fleet's agent (fleetd) so it's automatically installed when you [enroll hosts](https://fleetdm.com/guides/enroll-hosts) by installing fleetd.

Once installed, Fleet Desktop will be [automatically upgraded](https://fleetdm.com/guides/fleetd-updates).

## Custom transparency link

Organizations with complex security postures can direct end users to a resource of their choice to serve custom content.

> The custom transparency link is only available for users with Fleet Premium
Expand All @@ -26,7 +27,7 @@ On the settings page, go to **Organization Settings > Fleet Desktop > Custom tra

For information on setting the custom transparency link via a YAML configuration file, see the [configuration files](https://fleetdm.com/docs/configuration/yaml-files#fleet-desktop) documentation.

## Secure Fleet Desktop
## Security

Requests sent by Fleet Desktop and the web page that opens when clicking on the "My Device" tray item use a [Random (Version 4) UUID](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4122.html#section-4.4) token to uniquely identify each host.

Expand All @@ -53,6 +54,26 @@ As a consequence, Fleet Desktop will issue a new token if the current token is:

This change is imperceptible to users, as clicking on the "My device" tray item always uses a valid token. If a user visits an address with an expired token, they will get a message instructing them to click on the tray item again.

## Advanced

### Hide the menu bar icon on macOS

Some Fleet users want to hide the menu bar icon on macOS because of the limited menu bar "real estate."

How to hide the menu bar icon:

1. Add the [hide script](TODO) to Fleet.

@noahtalerman noahtalerman Jul 7, 2026

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Hey @allenhouchins when you get the chance can you please help me write/add the script to hide Fleet Desktop to the solutions/ folder? (assuming that's the right spot)

2. Go to a device's **Host details** page.
3. Select **Actions > Run script** and run the hide script.

To run this script automatically across all macOS hosts create a policy in Fleet with the following query:

```sql
TODO

@noahtalerman noahtalerman Jul 7, 2026

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Hey @ksatter when you get the chance can you please help me write the policy's query we need to automatically hide the Fleet Desktop icon?

```

Then, add connect hide script to this policy via [policy automations](https://fleetdm.com/guides/policy-automation-run-script).

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