Setup Mac mini for 'public' lab use

Greetings,

I am one of the execs of our photoclub at my college campus and we have picked up a Mac mini to replace our aged Celeron 400mhz WinME beast. One thing we are interested in, other than the general OS X and mini setup question is how to set it up safely for lab use.

We have about 80 people who will have access to this machine. It will be hooked up to a scanner, and soon a printer and wacom tablet. We want them to be able to scan, photoshop, burn CD/DVD's, print, go online, use aim (iChat), etc.

However, we do not want them to be able to install stuff, change important system settings or do anything else stupid and hazardous to the computer. What can we do here?

I figured 1 password protected Admin account and then 1 open account for all users to use. Beyond that, we really have no clue.

thanks

at my school we have a different account for each person, and each person has limitations, its very simple setup, all the account information is on a central server, 2 miles away trhough a fiberoptic, your college can probually afford it if the really want to upgrade their computer labs.

I think my college uses an app called Deep Freeze for the mac. It works great, because I can't figure out how to access the admin controls. A company called Faronics makes the app.

http://www.faronics.com/html/DFMac.asp

PowerBookG4 said:

at my school we have a different account for each person, and each person has limitations, its very simple setup, all the account information is on a central server, 2 miles away trhough a fiberoptic, your college can probually afford it if the really want to upgrade their computer labs.

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Unfortunately whatever we do needs to be handled by the computer itself. We are a large club of 80 members, and we will be sharing this one computer. It comes out of our clubs budget, and is not related to the rest of campus in any way. The only other Mac's on campus are in the art department, and even they appeart to go without a central server from my experience.

Stephen G said:

Unfortunately whatever we do needs to be handled by the computer itself. We are a large club of 80 members, and we will be sharing this one computer. It comes out of our clubs budget, and is not related to the rest of campus in any way. The only other Mac's on campus are in the art department, and even they appeart to go without a central server from my experience.

Click to expand...

Just set the limitations you want on a "visitor" account (you can call it anything you want except "guest" as that is a special account) and just have people log on using that account. You don't even need to give it a password.

Amen-Moses

yea, in acconts, create a guest acount, and dont make it an admin account, you dont need to set any limitations on it as all installers require admin password to install anyway, limitations can be set so they cant delete files if you dont want them to, or also to keep them from adding fonts or drag and drop apps. then, in account login options, set it to autologin as that guest account.

Thanks, can't wait to get it setup. It is also the only Mac I get to play with until I order my own (first) in August, so it is a learning/fun experience.