Mac OS X Lion: The Missing Manual

Setting Up the Login Process

Once you’ve set up more than one account, the dialog box shown in Figure 12-1 appears whenever you turn on the Mac, whenever you choose →Log Out, or whenever the Mac logs you out automatically. But a few extra controls let you, an administrator, set up either more or less security at the login screen—or, put another way, build in less or more convenience.

Open System Preferences, click Users & Groups, click the and enter an admin password to prove your worthiness, and then click the Login Options button (Figure 12-11). Here are some of the ways you can shape the login experience for greater security (or greater convenience):

• Automatic login. This option eliminates the need to sign in at all. It’s a timesaving, hassle-free arrangement if only one person uses the Mac, or uses it most of the time.

  When you choose an account holder’s name from this pop-up menu, you’re prompted for his password. Type it and click OK.

  POWER USERS’ CLINIC: The Secret Account Options

  Anyone who knows Mac OS X very well might object to one sentence in this section: “If you’re an administrator, you can change your own account in any way you like.”

  Because everybody knows that there’s one aspect of an account that even an admin can’t change: the account’s short name (the account name, ...