TMO Quick Tip - Leopard: User Accounts Advanced Options

by , 7:30 AM EST, December 21st, 2007

Creating a user account in Mac OS X 10.5 is pretty straight forward: Make up a user name and password in the Accounts Preference Pane, and you are pretty much done. If you are looking for more control over how your user accounts are set up, however, you just need to know where to look.

Leopard's Accounts Preference Pane also hides a set of advanced options you can use to customize user account settings. To get at the advanced options, Control-click a name in the Accounts Preference Pane, and then choose Advanced from the pop-up menu.

Control-click an account to see the advanced settings.

The advanced options let you change User ID, Group ID, short name, login shell, home directory location, and more. In the old days of Mac OS X, changing a short name was a real pain. Not any more.

The Advanced Options pane is full of extra account settings.

This is a great tool when placed in the right hands, and a potential disaster in the making for anyone that doesn't understand the ramifications of changing these settings -- which could include losing access to your account. If you haven't messed with any of these settings in the past, invite a friend over that has and let them show you the ropes.

[Thanks to TMO reader Andrew McIntosh for pointing out this tip.]

Jeff Gamet is TMO's Morning Editor and Reviews Editor. He lectures, teaches and speaks on Mac OS X and design-related topics, and is the author of The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X from Peachpit Press.

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