Easy Mac OS X Lion - Kate Binder [52]
In this chapter, you’ll learn how to create user accounts and change their attributes, as well as how to log in and log out. You’ll also learn how to manage security with passwords.
Account and Security Setup
Creating and Deleting Users
Each user of a Mac gets his or her own account, with separate preferences, home folder, and login identity. Each account can have a customized level of access to system functions, and each account is password-protected so that only its user can change its settings.
Choose Apple menu, System Preferences.
Click Users & Groups to see the account’s preferences.
If the preferences are locked, click the closed padlock button to unlock them; then enter an admin name and password and click OK.
To create a new user, click the Add User button.
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Tip: Setting Limits
When you create a new user account, you control the user’s access to most functions. In the Password pane, click Open Parental Controls. On the Apps tab, choose the programs and functions you want to make available to the user. On the Web tab, turn on monitoring to limit access to adult content, and on the People tab, set limits on email and instant messaging use. The Time Limits and Other tabs contain controls for how much time the user can work on the Mac, and for keeping track of what the user does.
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Enter the new user’s name, a short version of the name (such as initials), and a password; then click Create User.
To delete a user, click a name in the list and then click the Delete User button.
Choose what you want to do with the user’s files: archive them, leave them in place, or delete them.
Click OK in the confirmation dialog box.
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Tip: The Stuff They Leave Behind
When you delete a user, one of your options is to save the user’s files as a disk image that’s placed in the Deleted Users folder in the Users folder. Double-click the disk image to see the saved files. If the user was using FileVault, enter the user’s password. FileVault or no FileVault, drag the disk image file to the Trash to delete the files.
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Making a User an Admin
Each Mac has at least one admin user—the first user identity created on your Mac is automatically an admin. You can make any other user an admin as well, which allows that user to control system preferences and make changes to the Mac’s setup.
Choose Apple menu, System Preferences.
Click Users & Groups to see the account’s preferences.
If the preferences are locked, click the closed padlock button to unlock them; then type an admin name and password and click Unlock.
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Note: Admins Beget Admins
Only admin users can create other admin users. If you’re not an admin user, you’ll need to ask someone who is already designated as an admin on your Mac to give you that status.
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Click a name in the account list.
Click the Allow user to administer this computer check box.
Click OK.
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Note: Wherefore Admin, Anyway?
To home users, the term “admin user” can seem strange. It’s a result of Mac OS X’s emphasis on accommodating multiple users of a single Mac. In most multiuser situations, such as computer labs, only authorized administrators should be able to change the Mac’s setup.
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Logging In and Out
Depending on your preferences, you might need to log in to your Mac every day, or you might hardly ever see the login screen. Either way, you do need to remember your login name and password so you can log in when needed—after another user has logged out or after major changes are made to your system.
In the Login dialog box, click your name in the list of users.
Type your password and press Enter or click the arrow at the right-hand end of the password field.
To log out, choose