Setting up user accounts

Skanstull · Jan 27, 2007

Hi all!

I'm seriously considering buying myself a MacBook, my first Mac, tomorrow.

I guess most questions can wait until I have it in front of me, but how to set up the user accounts seems to be good to know in advance before downloading and installing applications, customizing etc.

In several Mac OS Security FAQ's recommendations are to set up a basic user account, beside the admin account, for daily use.

What do you think about that? What inconveniences will follow? Will I get to input the admin password everytime I install an application (not that that is very hard work)?

Is there a downside with setting it up like that?

Thanks in advance for any input.

baggss · Jan 27, 2007

I have 2 accounts on my Mac. Mine, which is an Admin account and Root, which is..well..Root.

Setting yourself up as a non admin will simply make things like installing programs more difficult for you.

mac57 · Jan 27, 2007

The recommended setup is to create a user account for yourself which is separate from the root account. This is part of the security aspect of Mac OS X. Since the average user account does not have access priveledges to the base OS X operating system files, even IF you could manage to unleash a horrible virus onto your machine from within your account, all it could damage would be your personal files, not the system itself (since the virus, running with your account priveledges, would not have permission to access files that were not owned by you - - - and "root" owns all the system files).

So, it is strongly recommended that you create your own personal account and set up shop inside there.

There are no downsides to this, only upside.

nukemm · Jan 27, 2007

I have an admin accout (root), my own account (admin rights), my wife's account (basic user), and my brother's account (basic user). What this does is ask for an admin password whenever anything that messes with system settings is attempted from a non-admin account. Just enough inconvenience that I have to approve anything getting done to my mac.

baggss · Jan 27, 2007

mac57 said:
The recommended setup is to create a user account for yourself which is separate from the root account. This is part of the security aspect of Mac OS X. Since the average user account does not have access priveledges to the base OS X operating system files, even IF you could manage to unleash a horrible virus onto your machine from within your account, all it could damage would be your personal files, not the system itself (since the virus, running with your account priveledges, would not have permission to access files that were not owned by you - - - and "root" owns all the system files).

So, it is strongly recommended that you create your own personal account and set up shop inside there.

There are no downsides to this, only upside.

Do you mean a user account or an Admin account? Setting up a user account is likely counterproductive if he is the only one using the machine. Setting up an Admin account is the best way to go. You have to know how to set up root to do it, so that is not really an issue.

nukemm said:
I have an admin accout (root), my own account (admin rights), my wife's account (basic user), and my brother's account (basic user). What this does is ask for an admin password whenever anything that messes with system settings is attempted from a non-admin account. Just enough inconvenience that I have to approve anything getting done to my mac.

I have the same thing, just no user account.

MacHeadCase · Jan 27, 2007

It's kinda hard to explain without you having a Mac at home but I'll try.

You simply go to your System Preferences and then you click on the Accounts button (screen grab 1). This will take you into the Accounts pane.

From there you add accounts using the + symbol or delete accounts using the - symbol (screen grab 2).

mac57 · Jan 27, 2007

Hi baggs, no I actually mean a basic user account, no admin rights. This is the safest thing to do. When you run things like OnyX, it will prompt you for an admin password, and as long as you know what it is (and you should, you set this up when you first buy your Mac) all is well.

This way, the ONLY time when anything happens to the base files of the system is if you EXPLICITLY give permission for this to happen.

I am surprised to find that this is not the norm. I came to Macs from the world of Linux, where this is the standard approach, and so perhaps I have dragged a little bit of Linux thinking onto my Mac. Interesting...

baggss · Jan 27, 2007

The standard seems to be an Admin account. Don't forget Admin in OSX is NOT root user, so you still can't really screw things up that badly. Standard user in OSX, can't even install programs etc. Only root can mess with the base system files, not Admin, although Admin can mess with user profiles and muck things up a bit if they try. This doesn't seem to happen often though.

Skanstull · Jan 27, 2007

Thanks for the incredibly fast answers!:ninja:

baggss · Jan 27, 2007

No, DO NOT enable the root account (you have to know how, and it's not all that obvious), just make an Admin account. The user account is up to you, but I suspect you'll dump it shortly for the admin account.

Admin does NOT = root in OSX.

Skanstull · Jan 27, 2007

I've googled the net for discussions on this issue and the opinions seem to be divided - some preferring using the computer under a basic user account (and authenticating admin password when needed), and some arguing that it's an unnecessary precaution.

Thanks for the input!

mac57 · Jan 27, 2007

You are right baggss (of course!). My personal account does have "Admin" listed under it. This must be the default that OS X uses when you create a new account.

Kash · Jan 27, 2007

To put it simply, if you're going to be the only user of the Mac, then you just need one account, the one that the setup wizard creates for you when you first fire up the Mac. Then you don't need to touch your User Account controls again. The only other time you should go into those controls is if you want to add more users.

Like others have said, you can also give your account Root privileges, but to be honest, unless you plan on getting really deep into the inner workings of the operating system, you can just ignore all talk about a Root account.

baggss · Jan 27, 2007

Actually, you can NOT give an admin account root privileges (in the GUI), only the root account (named root) can act as root. If you are Unix Command line savvy, there are ways you can work it through there though.

mathogre · Jan 28, 2007

Yeah, I just encountered a bit of the difference between admin and root. I'm an admin. I downloaded the latest version of Python and installed it. I also downloaded the html version of docs in a .zip file, which I subsequently tried to unzip to a fairly standard location and it wouldn't let me. My first reaction was the correct one, and it worked just fine.

Setting up user accounts

Skanstull

baggss

mac57

nukemm

baggss

MacHeadCase

Guest

mac57

baggss

Skanstull

baggss

Skanstull

mac57

Kash

baggss

mathogre

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