macfidelity

Ugly topic but in some cases needed: hiding user-account in a login window dialog

In the Windows world i usualy realize that using TweakUI …. a small tool by Microsoft to offer easy access to some hidden Preferences / Settings out of the PowerToys Series

Question:

But how do you realize that with Mac OS X ?

Well i reached the point today at work, so lets share the solution i found in the web.

Short Answer:

The login dialog preferences in 10.4 and 10.5 supports a setting called HiddenUserList

Long Answer:

Note: accountX stand for users shortname

To hide a single user from the login window enter the following in Terminal.app

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow \
HiddenUsersList -array-add account1

To hide several users enter the following:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow \
HiddenUsersList -array-add account1 account2

To unhide all users enter the following:

sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow \
HiddenUsersList

Links:

• Microsoft PowerToys
• MacOsXHints.com about hiding users

I have described how to change the Mac Os X Leopard login wallpaper in this post.

Well time for a small additional information as i realized today.

It seems to be important that you replace DefaultDesktop.jpg with a file which has the same size (2560×1600). So its not only the format that matters, its the size too.

Just if you have problems getting it to work.

I was used to a keycombo on Linux boxes to restart X and always asking myself if Mac Os X has a similar function. Well not 1:1 but i found an ugly hack how to restart your Desktop environment very quickly. I dont know how safe this method is (so be warned), but it works for me.

How to:

• Open Activity Monitor (/Applications/Utilities)
• Use the search function to locate the process “loginwindow”
• Kill this process (quit or force quit) and you’ll find yourself back on the login dialog

A real basic think you need to know as mac-user is howto define autostart items for your user account.

First Step is to open System Preferences:

Select Accounts -> Login Items

Then add your new Login Item using the Plus-Icon.

Finally you can select if you want to hide the application when you log in or not.

Thats all you need to know regarding Login Items. Really simple isnt it ?
Edit: this hint works for 10.4 and 10.5