Mac OS X in a Nutshell

Name

Accounts and User Management

Synopsis

Add another user to the system?

System Preferences → Accounts → New User (requires administrator privileges)

Note

Unix administrators might be tempted to use the useradd, userdel, and usermod commands to add, remove, and modify a user, respectively, from the Terminal. However, this isn’t possible, since those commands don’t exist on Mac OS X.

Remove a user from the system?

System Preferences → Accounts → username → Delete User

Note

While logged in, you can’t remove yourself from the system. If you want to remove your user account from the system, you will have to log out and log back in as another user.

Configuring my login?

System Preferences → Accounts → Login Options

Change my login password?

System Preferences → My Account My Password → Change

System Preferences → Accounts → Users → username → Edit User

Use the passwd command in the Terminal.

Note

When choosing a password, you should avoid using dictionary words (i.e., common, everyday words found in the dictionary) or something that could be easily guessed. To improve your security, we recommend that you choose an alphanumeric password. Remember, passwords are case-sensitive, so you can mix upper- and lowercase letters with your password as well.

Give a user administrator privileges?

System Preferences → Accounts → Users → username → Edit User → Allow user to administer this computer (requires administrator privileges)

Restrict which applications a user can use?

System Preferences ...