News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

October 31, 2007

tips

Leopard: Unlock hidden account options

Posted Oct. 31, ’07, 8:36 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Tips

Advanced OptionsApple, you sneaky devils. Hiding new features and options in places that we would never even think to look for them! It’s true: while most of Leopard’s shiny new gewgaws are pretty obvious, there’re a fair share that you might need to dig around for. Take, for example, the additions to the Accounts preference pane.

“What additions?” you might ask, and you would be justified for doing so. Apple’s tucked them away in a hidden contextual menu that I would never have found on my own (cheers, Mr. Frakes). The trick is this: first unlock the Accounts pane by clicking on the padlock and entering your administrator password. Then, control-click on your name in the account list. You’ll see one choice: “Advanced Options…” Therein lie the secrets that man has sought since the beginning of time. Or OS X, anyway.

Now, as Apple says at the top of the subsequent dialog, these are serious options. There’s a reason Apple’s buried them: Don’t be mucking about in here if you don’t know what you’re doing. That said, you can change a number of things from this panel, such as your User ID, Group ID, Short Name (which, by the way, could royally screw up your machine, so be extra careful), Login Shell, Home Directory, UUID, and aliases. The above hint that I linked to really deals with aliases: by specifying one here, you can enter it wherever you see your short account name (“dan” instead of “dmoren” for example, if typing those three more characters is really an undue burden).


1 Comments

Khurt Williams Author Profile Page said:

I don't run my regular user account as an administrator on my mac. But I am growing tired of typing in "Administrator" each time I install or remove an app or change a major system preference. I'll be using this "feature" tonight to change the Administrator account to something shorter; like "god".

October 31, 2007 9:32 AM

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