Leopard: User Accounts Advanced Options

· by · Tips

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.

Leopardis 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 doesnit understand the ramifications of changing these settings -- which could include losing access to your account. If you havenit 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.]

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Jeff Gamet

Jeff Gamet

Jeff is the Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and co-host of the Apple Context Machine podcast. He is the author of "The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X" from Peachpit Press, and writes for several design-related publications. Jeff has presented at events such as Macworld Expo, the RSA Conference, and the Mac Computer Expo. In all his spare time, he also co-hosts the We Have Communicators podcast, and makes guest appearances on several other podcasts, too. Jeff dreams in HD.

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