Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition

Editing Accounts

Administrators have all the fun. In Tiger, for the first time, non-administrators are permitted to change their startup pictures and passwords. (Just open System Preferences, click Accounts, and click your own account, which appears at the top of the list. Now you can change your name or password.) If you're an administrator, though, you can change your own account in any way you like. (Well, almost any settings: Administrators can change an account's name—but even they can't change an account's short name once the account has been created.)

If you're a Standard or Managed account holder and you want to make changes (beyond your picture and password), you're out of luck. You'll have to ask an admin to log in, make the changes you want made to your account, and then turn the computer back over to you.

Figure 12-10. Top: This dialog box lets you know where to find the deleted account's material, should the need arise. Bottom: The files and settings of accounts you deleted live on, in the Users→Deleted Users folder.

Deleting Accounts

Hey, it happens: Somebody graduates, somebody gets fired, somebody dumps you. Sooner or later, you may need to delete an account from your Mac.

When that time comes, click the account name in the Accounts list and then click the minus-sign button beneath the list. Tiger asks what to do with all of the dearly departed's files and settings:

• Delete ...