Should I create a Guest Account?

I have been a Mac owner for a while, but I figured this would be a topic for the Switchers forum. I am the sole user of this computer. I have read many times when someone is having problems that they try another account on their Mac to see if the problem exists there. Any Guest account I would create would have access to everything on this computer...there is no need to limit access to anything on this computer. There is nothing to hide and nothing that would compromise my personal/financial security. My questions are...Should I create a Guest account for trouble-shooting reasons? Do most of you power users have a Guest account set up solely for trouble-shooting reasons? If so, what would be any changes or limits you would put on this account? Thank you in advance for any input or suggestions concerning Guest accounts . . . Dogbreath

I ave a guest account but it exists solely to keep people who don't know what they are doing (other than me of course) from having Admin level access.

Creating a second account for troubleshooting is a good idea. I I've done this since the beginning of OS X. Instead of using the Guest account I have simply created a second user with administrator privileges.

The Guest account would delete any newly created files when you log out. The account always starts in a pristine condition which is a good thing. The problem is that you will have to enter a password to do anything of consequence. With an admin account since you are already logged in with those privileges you will rarely have to re-enter the password.

Coming from you two...I accept this as sound advise. I am willing to deal with any potential password hurdles.Thank you both for your time and input. I am setting up an account just as soon as I finish this post.

Coming from you two...I accept this as sound advise. I am willing to deal with any potential password hurdles.Thank you both for your time and input. I am setting up an account just as soon as I finish this post.
This account will be for trouble shooting. But it could happen that one day I may have a guest needing to use my computer. Should I allow Guest users to administer this computer since its intent (to date) is for trouble-shooting...or will the account have enough access without administration where I can fix issues? For now, I will allow administration. I can always change that relying on the power user's future advice.

ok...I messed up, I apologize.

Dogbreath said:

ok...I messed up, I apologize.

Click to expand...

How??

I wouldn't allow guests to use the troubleshooting account. Since it has administrator access someone could, either accidentally or deliberately, cause all kinds of havoc if they know the password. The Guest account goes a long way to prevent that even to the point of deleting user files when that user logs out.

My media Mac has both an extra administrator account for troubleshooting. The guest account is there for things like general web surfing and music playback but prevents someone from making permanent changes without knowing a password.

Let's be more clear about this.

I think Dogbreath is wanting to create a secondary, "virgin" Admin account for troubleshooting.

A real "guest account" is an option on the Mac intended for visitors who are borrowing the computer temporarily. It's not an admin account, can't be made one, and is intended to be "disposable" (ie all traces of any activity are removed when the guest logs out).

For future reference, it might be better to refer to a troubleshooting account as such, to distinguish it from the limited-by-design Guest Account.

I have created a virgin admin account for trouble-shooting...and I added a dedicated/true Guest account with no admin privileges so I won't have to worry about changes. Why not?...it's so easy. So now I will have 3 accounts...all questions answered and the decision has been implemented...a big thanks again.


...and the "messed up" post above was about messing up on editing my first reply...